


Just Keep the Ball in Play

by billyspilgrimage



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Best Friends to Enemies to Teammates to Lovers, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Eventual Smut, Explicit Language, F/F, Flashbacks, Hurt/Comfort, Jock Adora (She-Ra), Mild Blood, Minor Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Minor Injuries, Mutual Pining, Olympics, POV Alternating, Slow Burn, Tension, The Rebellion and The Horde are on the same team, Volleyball
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:15:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25993525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/billyspilgrimage/pseuds/billyspilgrimage
Summary: For years, Adora and Catra have independently clawed their way to the top. Adora made her name as 'She-Ra', the dependable ace that could always carry her team to victory. Catra became known for her unbelievable ability to receive any spike. They haven't played together since high school, since their friendship, since their...whatever they had, ended.Now, they've both qualified for the Olympic Women's Volleyball Team. Whether they like it or not, they have to work and live together at the Olympic Training Center for the next few months as they learn to be a part of each other's lives again.
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 63
Kudos: 191





	1. First Contact

### Adora

Adora’s footsteps were muffled as she walked through the narrow hallway, walls plastered with white paint and a gray carpet leading the way to her new home for the next few weeks. One of the wheels on her bag rattled as it dragged behind her, a little heavier than was probably recommended, but she really had no idea what she was going to need.

It was Adora’s first day at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. For nearly a decade, she’d been working for this, clawing her way to the top. Through everything, this was what all her hard work was for. She’d finally qualified for the Olympics and made the USA Women’s Volleyball team, and today, she’d finally meet her teammates. Adora’s knuckles were white against the handle of her suitcase, the anxiety that’d built inside her during the plane ride trying to escape in any way possible. It overpowered the exhaustion that should be plaguing her after the red-eye flight. She checked her phone for the time. 6:56am. At that point, it wasn’t worth trying to sleep, even if she could. Dim sunlight streamed through the window at the end of the hall, giving a dull glow to the interior of the building. She read the brass room numbers as she strode down the hallway, each pale white door seemingly more monotonous than the last.

_There must be some rule about decorations. If my teammates are this boring, I might just go insane._

Adora stops in her tracks, overloaded luggage running over her own foot as she tries to come to a stop in front of her room assignment.

“Ow! Shit!” Adora exclaimed as pain shot up from her toes. Her voice echoed down the hallway, ten times louder than she had meant for it to be. She clamped her mouth shut with a free hand, hoping to keep any more sound from escaping into the dead dormitory. She didn’t want to make enemies on her first day. 

As the pain of her toes being crushed faded away, the sound of the door in front of her unlocking added kindling to the burning bundle of anxiety inside her. 

Adora stood in the hallway, frozen, as the door to her room slowly creaked open to reveal a short, purple-haired, half-asleep woman who slammed her eyes shut in response to the white light of the hallway beaming down at her. She clearly had just crawled out of bed. Her hair was a mess, one cropped side matted against her cheek, and she wore a baggy t-shirt with illegible faded text on the chest. When her eyes opened again, they were as wide as dinner plates as they tried to take in all of Adora’s broad frame.

_This is your chance for a good first impression. You got this, Adora._

Pushing through her nerves, Adora stuck a hand out towards the woman in front of her. She cleared her throat, readying herself for the new world ahead of her filled with respected, world-renowned athletes that fought their way tooth-and-nail to be here, and she’d prove that she belonged with them.

“Hi! I live here!”

_Real smooth, Adora._

At first, the purple-haired woman didn’t say anything. She looked _up_ at Adora, eyes shifting from Adora’s face, to her toes, and back to the poof atop her head. A bit of drool was dotting the corner of her mouth, but Adora was too intimidated to say anything about it.

The woman seemed a little stunned after her appraisal, raising a hand to finally grasp Adora’s in a firm handshake as her mouth still hung open in awe. “Lemme guess, you’re Adora.” She raised her pitch at the end of her sentence, like it was a question, but Adora got the feeling she already knew the answer somehow.

Adora let out a nervous laugh, already feeling a little uncomfortable. “Yeah, that’s me. Um-sorry for shouting. I just. I ran over my toes.” Adora watched as the girl still stared at her, not saying anything for a minute until she swallowed the lump in her throat.

“How tall are you?”

It was a familiar question to Adora, one that she’d been asked by classmates, teachers, friends, teammates, coaches, even random people on the street. It still made her cringe a little, but she was secretly pretty proud of it. At least here, they wouldn’t ask her if she played basketball.

Adora gave a patronizing smile before saying, “Six foot three.” She watched her roommate’s jaw drop to the floor, just like everyone’s did. She tried to move past it before the silence became too awkward, “So, what’s your name?”

It seemed to work, as the girl’s trance broke and she seemed to suddenly become aware of her disheveled hair and encrusted drool. She frantically ran her fingers through her purple hair and leaned her shoulder into the doorframe, trying to seem like she’d been ready for this introduction for hours. She crossed her arms and smirked with a sudden confidence, like she wasn’t gawking at Adora two seconds before, “Oh, I’m Glimmer.” She raised a thumb to her chest. “I’m the starting setter.”

_Oh God. I just barged in on my setter and woke her up on my first day. Oh God. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit._

Adora’s face immediately flushed, desperately wanting to dig out of the deep grave she managed to place herself in within a few minutes of showing up to the training campus. “Sorry I woke you up...It’s my first day here.” Adora looked down at her outfit, realizing how obvious it must look to anyone who saw her. She had a pair of bulky headphones around her neck, a muscle tank with arm-holes that were cut halfway down her torso, baggy sweatpants, a Mizuno backpack slung over one shoulder, and a rolling bag trailing behind her. She looked like the spokeswoman for travelling volleyball players everywhere.

Glimmer read her like a book. “Yeah, I figured as much. Coach told me that’d I be rooming with the magnificent _She-Ra_.” She put a hand on her hip as she enunciated ‘She-Ra,’ drawing it out with a mixture of fandom and teasing.

Adora cringed at her college nickname, trying to not look embarrassed about being called it to her face. It was a wound that’d never gotten a chance to heal properly, and hearing it again tore off the scab that’d materialized since she graduated from college.

Adora laughed it off.

Glimmer seemed satisfied with that, and reached inside the room to flick the light switch on. The black of Adora’s new home was suddenly filled with a similar, blinding white light to the hallway. Against the wall was a simple full-sized bed, blankets bunched up around the foot. Two of the walls were covered in posters except for where a whiteboard was propped up on a small desk in the corner that was covered in what looked like volleyball plays. On the opposite side of the room was another bed with only a mattress on top and the immediate vicinity of which was bare.

_Wow. They really skimped out on the dorms, huh?_

“This is uh...this is really nice!” Adora’s thinly veiled attempt at lying wasn’t very convincing. She never was very good at it.

Her teammate walked past her and started to grab a fresh pair of shorts and a t-shirt while combing through her tangled hair with a free hand. “It’s pretty spartan, you don’t have to pretend to be impressed.”

Adora let out a deep sigh as she started to get a little more comfortable in the space.

Glimmer spoke excitedly through the clearly groggy state she was in, “You’re the last one to fly in, and Coach wants us to get to know each other, so she asked me to take you on a tour as soon as possible!” She slipped on her shorts and traded her shirt for a clean one before grabbing a backpack off the floor and sliding her feet into a pair of tennis shoes. “First stop, the cafeteria!”

* * *

Adora didn’t even have time to take a shower before Glimmer had grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out of the dorm and into the brisk morning air outside. It was...fine. She felt like she and Glimmer were getting along well as they walked across campus. Glimmer was filling the air with small-talk about the buildings and statues around them, and it let Adora stay silent for a while. It was a familiar routine. She’d traded team lineups every few months for the past eight years, and no one was ever there long enough for them to get close to Adora. She’d gotten used to it a long time ago, but sometimes she found herself longing for the simple days of high school, where her teammates were her best friends. Every day, they’d see each other in class, eat lunch together, go to practice after school, and have sleepovers almost every weekend. She remembered one time when Catra dared her to eat a spoonful of black pepper after one of their travel games, and she couldn’t say no, _obviously_. She was sneezing up pepper for three days after that. 

“What’s so funny?”

The sudden change in Glimmer’s tone brought Adora back to Earth as she realized she’d been chuckling at the memory. “Oh! Sorry. I barely got any sleep on the flight here and my brain keeps checking out. I’m just...thinking about that coffee!” She put on a big grin and gave Glimmer an overenthusiastic thumbs up to seal the deal.

Glimmer took a long look at her before pulling open the door to the Athlete Center and leading the way inside. She called back to Adora as she walked, “Well try your best not to do that in front of the coaches, unless you want to be so sore you can barely walk.”

What the training center saved by making the dorms as barebones as possible must have been worth it, because the Athlete Center was _huge_. As Adora walked in, she struggled to take in the sheer height of the interior. It was easily four stories worth of almost completely open space with walls made of glass. On the bottom floor, right below where she stood with Glimmer, was the cafeteria. It had at least a hundred small tables spread throughout the room, some being freestanding and others in booths that followed curved walls in the middle of the atrium. There were two separate food lines, each accommodating a buffet with chefs behind the counter as well as a dedicated beverage space in the center of the floor that had several large urns of hot and iced coffee, ready to be served.

“This is...insane.”

Glimmer returned the attitude, albeit a little more enthusiastically, “Right?! Let’s go raid that drink bar.”

As they hoofed it down the stairs, Adora saw a tall, straw blonde woman waving at them from one of the food lines.

“That’s Perfuma, she’s one of our middle blockers. She’s super sweet, and she’ll absolutely giggle while she blocks you into oblivion.” Adora shuddered at the thought of getting completely shut out while looking up at such a kind face.

* * *

By the time she’d gotten a styrofoam cup full of coffee and walked off her bundle of nerves, Adora found herself opening up to Glimmer and finally starting to develop that connection that they really needed to function as a hitter/setter combo. Glimmer had that ‘really cared about her friends but would also definitely fight everyone in the room’ vibe that Adora had always appreciated. She found herself rambling as they walked together, incredibly grateful that they seemed to have at least a little chemistry.

They passed the weight room, Glimmer clearly indicating that her home was elsewhere. “Yeah, it’s just not my thing I guess.”

Adora stopped mid-step as she looked through the garage doors that were open to the air outside, revealing rows of benches and a line of dumbbells and kettlebells along a mirror on the back wall. The room was empty, except for two women who caught her eye.

Glimmer followed her gaze, tracing it to the only active bench in the entire room. Standing above it, an Indian woman with eyeliner so sharp it could kill spotted another woman who was lifting a barbell loaded with several pairs of weights above her.

_Woah. That’s impressive._

Adora continued to stare as Glimmer spoke in her ear, “That’s Mermista and Lonnie. Mermista’s an opposite hitter. I used to play with her and let me tell ya, she can do pretty much anything. Spike, block, receive, you name it.”

“What about Lonnie?”

Glimmer started to tease Adora, elbowing her in the ribs. “That’s your competition, _She-Ra_.”

That familiar pain rang in Adora’s ears, but she didn’t say anything.

“She’s the other outside hitter. I haven’t seen her play yet, but word around the Center is that no one’s been able to get a good block on her in years.” Glimmer smacked her hand downwards in a spiking motion. “She just goes right through ‘em!”

Adora watched Lonnie’s bulking biceps flex as her press reached its apex, held, and bulged again as she lowered the barbell. She couldn’t make out exactly how much she was lifting, but it was at least several hundred pounds.

_Jesus._

Adora cleared her throat, forcing herself to look away and back to Glimmer. “Anyways, let’s keep going!”

“Ugggh. Finally! Last stop, the gym!”

Glimmer led the way around the corner and towards a freestanding rectangular building. It was simple compared to the Athlete Center they’d visited earlier, sides a bright gray with a shallow arched roof on top. There weren’t any visible windows into the gym, and the only thing even making it known as the gym was the singular glass door by one corner that read, “USA VOLLEYBALL.”

Glimmer twirled around to look back at Adora as she stood in front of the door, her backpack bouncing off of her when she stopped. She spoke to Adora if she was a magician about to perform the greatest trick of her career, “And now, for the main event! The reason you’re here! The most marvelous gym I have ever been inside of and probably ever will be! They call it: The Cave!”

Adora couldn’t help but snicker as she talked, “Really? _The Cave?_ That’s really what it’s called?”

“Yes!”

“And you’re not trying to mess with me or something? If I say ‘Oh I’m going to The Cave’ to Mermista she’s not gonna laugh at me, right?”

Glimmer couldn’t help but laugh at Adora’s doubtfulness, which made it even harder for Adora to decide whether she was telling the truth or not. “Yes, I promise!”

Adora waved it off. “Alright, alright. Lead the way then.”

Glimmer pulled the door open and a blast of warm air hit Adora in the face. She immediately smelled the floor wax, sweat, and a hint of dust mixed with cleaner. Although the smell was the exact same as every gym she’d ever been inside, almost nothing else was.

The door opened into a gigantic room that hosted four separate courts, all sporting strung up nets with official chairs at the poles. Short panels of padding lined the long sides of each court at waist height, and the backs of the courts extended outwards until they met more padding that lined the wall. The air of the room extended several stories, all the way to the rafters that rested at least 70 feet in the air. Adora struggled to take in the sheer scale and grandeur of it all when a blur caught her eye on one of the courts at the center of the room.

She shifted her eyes, trying to lock onto the lightning bolt that sped across her vision.

There was a second before the thunder struck her, the sound of a volleyball ricocheting off of bare arms and rocketing straight into the sky where it belonged.

_There’s no way._

Every crevice of her mind told her that it was impossible. It had to be. But every muscle of her body already knew, already confirmed it. 

The ball fell from its arc, slapping the hardwood floor right where an outside hitter would be in a real game. Perfect form.

The body that’d come to a stop with knees sliding against the floor began to stand up and prepare for another attack. Adora watched as a face, a torso, and hips became visible over the padded barriers lining the court. Every hair on her body stood on end as _that_ face, that oh-so familiar face, turned towards the heavens and waited for another ball to challenge her.

The first thing Adora noticed was Catra’s hair. It was...short, cropped close enough that you’d have trouble putting it into a ponytail but grown out enough so that her curls were starting to show on the shaggy fringes. Adora had never seen Catra without a mane of hair. It looked...good.

The second thing was Catra’s body. She was clearly focused, and every muscle was piqued to jump at the slightest movement in front of her. She’d gained considerable tone since Adora had last seen her. With quick eyes, she traced the hard lines of muscle detailing Catra’s thighs and calves, drinking them in with a thirst that surprised herself. Her arms matched her legs, except for the kneepads. Catra had her hands out in front of her, fists pressed together with thumbs skyward as she prepared for another attack. Even from her vantage point on the other side of the gym, Adora could see the red blossoming along Catra’s forearms where she’d returned the spike moments before.

A drop of sweat trickled down from where hair was plastered against Catra’s forehead, tracing her cheekbone and making its way to her chin, pausing before dripping to the floor.

Adora was speechless. This wasn’t the girl she knew back then. All she could do was stare.

Glimmer seemed to notice Adora’s sudden attention to the woman receiving spikes across the room, but slightly misjudged the situation. “She’s hot, right?”

Reluctantly, Adora pulled her eyes away from Catra’s skin and turned to face Glimmer as she felt her cheeks begin to match the red shirt she was wearing. She stumbled through her words, “Oh-no, I-it’s not that...I mean, no!”

“Suuuuure. Whatever you say.” Glimmer winked one eye at her as she smiled. “That’s-”

“Catra. Yeah. We know each other.”

The shock subsided as Adora remembered the last time she saw Catra. It was college, four years ago. It wasn’t exactly a fun conversation.

Glimmer’s playful teasing turned into surprise of her own. “You _know_ each other?! What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It’s...complicated. Can we go?” Adora turned back to Catra, only to see one blue eye and one green eye staring back at her, both as wide as can be. To Adora, that gaze felt like it lasted years. She wished they could go back to the way things used to be, before everything happened. She wished it was simple again.

When those years ended, it wasn’t because one of them blinked. It was because a ball collided with Catra’s face at top speed, sending her toppling backwards and onto the floor.

Before her mind could think about what to do, Adora’s body was a blur as it vaulted the padded barriers to reach Catra at the center of the hardwood court where she had both hands covering her face.

“Catra! Catra are you okay?!” The voice was panicked, and Adora wasn’t quite sure if it was hers or not. Her vision was a tunnel, everything outside of Catra’s form cloaked in darkness. Those things didn’t matter right now.

Catra pulled a hand away from her face and Adora saw blood. Bright red, flowing from her nose and onto the path that the bead of sweat had made less than a minute earlier before dripping onto the maple boards beneath her.

Adora heard herself shout to Glimmer, but she wasn’t sure what she said. The world around her was muffled, fading into the background. She scanned Catra’s face. It was covered in blood, but it looked like it was just her nose. And she was conscious, that was really good. A pair of blue and green irises flicked up from Catra’s hand and to Adora’s eyes, only a few feet apart.

Adora’s ears cleared once she heard Catra’s raspy voice for the first time in years. “What the **hell** are you doing here? Get the fuck away from me!” One of Catra’s hands swatted at Adora as she used the other to steady herself before struggling to her feet on her own, leaving a bloody handprint painted on the floor.

A higher, unfamiliar voice came from behind Adora, almost making her jump. “Catra I’m so sorry! You said to be rough so I was but I didn’t mean to hit you! I’m so sorry! Are you okay?!” She turned her head to see a woman, taller and much broader than Adora was, approaching Catra with arms outstretched in apology.

Catra started stomping away from the scene, hissing back as the larger woman caught up with her and tried to examine the injury. After a few seconds of silent shock, Adora watched Catra turn around again and raise an index finger at her.

She spoke with venom in her words, every sound meant to hurt Adora as much as possible. “Stay out of my life, _She-Ra_. I don’t want **anything** to do with you.”

The freshly opened wound that Adora felt earlier that morning began to pulse at it was torn open. Catra wanted it to hurt, and she succeeded. Adora had hoped they could at least talk, maybe even be civil and apologize to each other. She recognized now that that was naive of her. 

Catra wanted them to be done, no matter how hard Adora tried to fix things. Maybe it was hopeless to try and be friends again, but they had to be teammates. Whether Catra liked it or not.


	2. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra nurses her wounds after seeing Adora for the first time since senior year of college.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank y'all for such a positive response to the first chapter I posted!! It means so much to me that you like this because I know I do!!!!!!

### Catra: Present

“I still can’t believe you know _She-Ra!_ ” Scorpia’s voice echoed across the sparkling tile floor of the Athlete Center bathroom. There was shock in her tone, but behind it was a layer of tenderness as she assessed Catra’s injury.

Catra winced as Scorpia pressed another tissue against her nose, sending a shock of pain spidering through her sinuses. The sight of _Adora_ looking down at her, like she was some injured puppy, replayed itself in Catra’s mind. Over, and over, and over again. She couldn’t make it stop.

_  
She heard Glimmer first, her shrill voice carrying across the gymnasium to meet Catra as she waited for another spike from Scorpia. What was meant to be a momentary glance turned into seconds as she saw her across the room. Next to Glimmer was a tall woman with a high ponytail, at least six feet, looking right into Catra’s eyes. Before she could pull away from her trance, Catra’s world disappeared._

_”Catra! Catra are you okay?!”_

_She felt a stabbing pain pulsing at the center of her face, focused right on the bridge of her nose. Everything was white, but that voice...It wasn’t Scorpia’s, her practice partner. It was familiar, wrought with worry and fear._

_The blinding light began to fade away, and Catra pulled her hands away from where they were pressed against her face. They were red, the blood soaking them almost as dark as her own skin. Past them, she saw a blonde woman, her eyebrows stitched with worry. Her blue eyes scraped against Catra’s skin as they moved, drawing fresh blood as Catra began to recognize the woman in front of her. She felt it boil in her veins as the stinging pulse in her nose vanished into thin air._

_“What the hell are you doing here? Get the fuck away from me! Stay out of my life, She-Ra. I don’t want anything to do with you.”_

_Catra narrowly missed Adora’s face with her claws before she managed to escape, not caring about the trail of blood she left in her wake._

The memory had already joined the collection that were seared into the back of Catra’s eyelids, and Scorpia wasn’t exactly helping by probing so much. There was another dab at her lip before Scorpia backed away, tossing the tissue into the trash.

Catra wiped away the remaining droplets of water on her face before mumbling in Scorpia’s direction, “Yeah. You could say we know each other.” She hopped off of the sink, striding past her practice partner as she stepped into the hallway. At the rate her day was going so far, Catra figured that the only safe place on the entire campus was her room, except she had to share it with her white-haired teammate who didn’t understand the concept of personal space.

She heard the heavy footsteps of Scorpia coming up behind her, trying not to be left in the dust.

_I never get a break, do I?_

Scorpia finally caught up to her, hands in her pockets as she interrogated Catra with a smile. “It certainly looked like it! So, what did she do? Bully you? Steal your girlfriend? Beat you in a tournament? That seems like an overreaction but hey, I won’t judge!”

Catra and Scorpia had known each other for a couple years now, but she’d never mentioned Adora to her. Ever. She’d never mentioned Adora to _anybody_ for that matter, and Scorpia was probably the closest thing to a friend she had. To have Adora put front and center of her life again, it wasn’t something she ever thought would happen.

Blue and green eyes stared straight ahead, following the signs for the cafeteria. She swallowed the lump that’d formed in the back of her throat. “No. We were on the same team in high school.” She tasted bile at the resurfacing memory, something she’d been trying to overcome for years now.

Scorpia’s large hands met her face in surprise. “Wait, you played high school volleyball with none other than national hero Adora Greyskull? THE Adora Greyskull? How did I never know this?!”

“It’s not a big deal, okay?!” Catra’s anger leaked into her words as she felt herself growing more and more frustrated. She took a deep breath, trying to control herself. “I don’t want to talk about it right now. Okay?”

* * *

The fact that the team’s first official practice was tomorrow morning rattled around Catra’s brain all day long. At this point, her only choices were to either run away and drop out of the team or to work with Adora. It was ironic, really. For such a long time, she’d wanted to play on the same side of the net as Adora, to have her back when they were pushed into a corner.

Catra brought her motorcycle to a stop in one of the parking spots at the training center. She let it idle for a moment, slowly bringing her thoughts to a close. The past few years, she’d developed the habit of going for rides to get her thoughts straight. It was strangely therapeutic, the feeling of wind against her chest and the rumble of the engine reverberating through her bones. She flipped the engine off, eyes raising to the stars above her.

_Man. I shoulda known better, shouldn’t I?_

She dismounted the jet-black Harley Davidson cruiser and took her helmet off, giving a quick ruffle to her hair before starting to walk towards her dorm.

_Of course they invited her to be on the Olympic team. She’s the best there is, and Adora isn’t exactly the type to turn down an offer to play on a higher stage._

The thought brought back the painful memories that Catra was trying to run away from. The last time they’d seen each other in person.

### Catra: Senior Year of College, Four Years Ago

Catra hoisted herself up from the bench of the locker room. She was sore, unbelievably sore. A large bandage decorated one leg where her knee pad had torn open during the game. The coach’s meeting was over, and her team had gone out for dinner to try and end the season on a high note.

She stayed after everyone else was gone. Even after she managed to stand up, she couldn’t move her feet. Lead weights were tied to them, pulling her down, deeper and deeper. She dug her fingernails into her palms, biting her lip in a vain effort to try not to scream.

Every practice. Every game. Every minute of work in the last four years had been a _waste_. She’d led her team to the semifinals of the NCAA National Tournament. They were so close, but as she desperately tried to carry them to the finish line, she couldn’t do it in the end. She wasn’t good enough. The vision of the final score flashed across her eyes.

_15 to 12. Five sets._

A fist slammed into the locker in front of her as tears started to form around the edges of Catra’s eyes. It wasn’t fair. None of it. If she was taller, if she was bigger, if she was gifted with what the others had, she could earn those points herself. But no, she was a libero. The shortest of the team, destined to stay on the ground and do whatever she could to keep the ball in the air.

Catra was finally able to force her feet to carry her into the hallway. The final spectators in the conference center streamed past her. Most of them kept moving, a few recognized her and asked for an autograph before saying that she had a great game. Every time she heard it, another dagger dug into her chest.

She wasn’t sure how long it took, but she found herself outside. The breeze felt nice against her long, curly hair. It was tradition to not get a single haircut during the playoff season, and she was already starting to feel the urge to chop it all off.

It was quiet here, outside the city, where the only people still at the stadium were players wrapping up for the night or loved ones coming to meet them.

As Catra stood in a plaza beside the main entrance, a spike of laughter interrupted her meditation. She whipped her head around to see a group of women, all of them wearing college track pants and jerseys, lightheartedly hopping down the stairs. A couple had their arms around a woman in front, while others gave her pats on the back. She was blonde, tall, and muscular. Catra couldn’t draw a more well-proportioned woman if she tried. Her cheekbones were sharp and her jawline carved around her face before her neck sloped into wide shoulders. Catra felt herself fill with contempt as her eyes followed Adora. It’d been four years since high school, but she’d heard all about what she’s been up to since then. Her eyes trailed to the hem of Adora’s jersey, where a thin line of skin showcased her sharp hips swaying back and forth as she walked down the stairs. Catra’s breath caught in her throat as she stared at her, momentarily unable to form a coherent thought.

Something possessed Catra to call out to her. Maybe it was the anger at having been left behind all those years ago, maybe it was the disappointment of having lost, maybe it was the jealousy of seeing someone so happy that she wanted them to feel how she felt. She still wasn’t sure.

“Hey! She-Ra!”

Adora’s face whipped around at the sound, smiling like an idiot and probably thinking that she was about to meet a fan. When her eyes met Catra’s, her grin dropped into shock and her eyes went wide. Catra watched as she said something to the women surrounding her, and then they seemed to plead with her for a moment.

_Jesus._

The other women pulled off of Adora, heading away from the stadium before Adora turned to face Catra and began walking towards her. She didn’t have the same stupid grin as before, Catra noted, but it looked hopeful, almost happy as she approached Catra.

Adora was too eager to let Catra say anything before she greeted her like everything was fine, “Catra! It’s so nice to see you!”

She watched as Adora finally made her way over to her. Catra wasn’t going to let her off that easy.

“Oh, is it?” She crossed her arms as she spoke, holding onto the anger she first felt when Adora left. It’s what fueled her, kept her strong.

The soft smile laced across Adora’s face seemed to falter, but Catra watched her push forwards. They stood, separated, in silence for a moment. Catra waited for a response, refusing to let Adora have an inch of comfort. Adora wasn’t quite sure what to say, memories of their childhood swimming through her conscience as she tried to gauge the tension in the air.

Adora cleared her throat before testing the waters hesitantly, “I heard you were playing in the semifinals today. How did it go?”

Catra didn’t move a muscle, but she could feel her heart tearing in half. One of the reasons she wanted to advance to the finals so badly is because she knew Adora would be there. If she could face Adora on the court, on the hardwood floors beneath the spotlights, she knew she could beat her. She knew it in her bones. Adora carried her team in the way that she was never able to, but she was Adora’s perfect counter. She always was.

Catra’s jaw clenched as she struggled to keep her composure. Her words were laced with toxin, a poison that she desperately wanted to dilute by sharing it with the woman across from her.

She raised her eyes back to Adora’s, trying to hit her as hard as possible. Those soft, innocent blue eyes stared back at her expectantly. 

“We lost. I guess you made a good choice going somewhere else.” It was all she knew how to do at the moment. To lash out, to hurt her just like she’d been hurt.

Adora was stunned, shock written across her face as she took one step forward and stuttered. “I-Catra, what do you mean?”

The little restraint Catra had finally let go. She couldn’t take it anymore. Her hands were thrown up in front of her as her eyebrows furrowed in anger.

“I **know** you won today! You’re going to the finals, and you’re gonna win there too!” Adora stood her ground as Catra continued. “We all know it! I know it! Your team knows it! Even **you** know it!”

Stone-faced in front of her, Adora didn’t let herself be intimidated at Catra’s outburst. She was expecting something like this. She knew it would happen, as much she didn’t want it to. She spoke slowly, but her own pent-up frustration seeped into her words, “What do you want me to say, Catra?”

Catra took a step closer, allowing her body to take control. She raised a finger to jab Adora in the chest as she got in her face, feeling Adora’s hot breath mix with hers. “I don’t care what you have to say, _She-Ra_. You’re famous now, right? You’re the star of the show, and you don’t care that you leave all your friends in the dust.” She gripped the front of Adora’s jersey, rising onto her toes as she pressed her nose into Adora’s. She could smell her, a mix of sweat and spearmint filling her lungs as she clung to her anger tighter and tighter.

Adora’s hard expression crumbled once Catra began to press against her. She lost her words, unsure of what to do but knowing one thing: “I’m-I’m sorry Catra.”

“I waited for four years. **Four. Years.** No call, no text. You disappeared, and I had to pick up the pieces because you’re _She-Ra_ now. You don’t GET to be sorry!”

Catra uncurled her fingers, letting the slick fabric of Adora’s jersey slide through them as she let go. She turned away from Adora’s pleading eyes and dragged her feet away from the stadium and the girl outside of it. Inside her, she felt the urge to turn back, to hear Adora out, to beg for an apology. But something else stirred in her gut. 

A fire began to burn, fueled by Catra’s long-awaited release. This wasn’t the end. Not for her at least. She’d stand on top of the world, and she’d do it by herself if she had to.

### Catra: Present

Colorado Springs got surprisingly chilly at night, and it brought an uncomfortable clarity to Catra’s thoughts. Clear, dark skies swept above her, hundreds of stars twinkling in between the peaks of the mountains in the distance. 

Adora’s eyes, filled with worry, flashed through her mind again. The aftertaste of disgust was still there, but an overpowering feeling of shame washed over Catra too.

_Okay, so maybe I overreacted a little, but I wouldn’t have if Adora hadn’t tried to be the hero again and shown up out of the blue._

Catra wasn’t the girl she was in college, and she was especially not the one she was in high school. But seeing Adora so suddenly again...it made her regress into her past self, lashing out as a way of defence.

_And now I have to be on the same team as her for the next month and a half. Great. Just great. I’m sure that’ll be easy after I told her to stay out of my life._

Catra threw her hands up in frustration as she rounded the corner of the cafeteria. As she took in the path that opened up in front of her, her eyes tracked a woman running, about a hundred yards away from her. She followed a different path, one that circled the entire campus, about a mile long. When the moonlight glinted off of a blonde ponytail, Catra felt her stomach flip and let her instincts take over as she jumped into the decorative bush that lined one of the buildings.

_What the fuck is she doing here? It’s 11pm and she’s out running, because of course she is. That’s Adora for you._

She pulled a thin branch to the side, creating a window that allowed Catra to see out of the bush and onto the surrounding walkway that Adora was running on.

When Catra was able to focus on her, she felt her breath stop.

Her eyes hovered on Adora’s abs, chiseled and exposed to the frigid night air under a sports bra that wrapped around her torso. As she ran, Catra felt her attention shift to the muscular legs that carried Adora down the track. She watched the tendons flex with each landing and takeoff, hypnotized by their sheer strength.

_Oh. That’s new._

Adora’s eyes were focused, listening to music through a pair of headphones as she ran. Her mouth was parted in exertion and she was breathing heavy, letting out little puffs of steam that even Catra could see. Beads of sweat ran down her forehead as her focus stayed forward. Then, all too soon for Catra’s liking, she rounded the corner and left Catra’s sight.

When she realized what she’d been doing, Catra scrambled out of the bush and shook her head to be free of the image of Adora’s bulking thighs.

_Jesus Christ, what’s wrong with me?_.

The rest of the walk to the dormitory was uneventful, although Catra found herself peeking around every corner, trying to avoid running into Adora again. She turned the key to her room, not caring if she woke Scorpia up or not. Just as she suspected, Scorpia was sitting up in bed on her phone when she opened the door to come inside.

Scorpia looked up from her phone excitedly, and something told Catra that she probably should have stayed out a little longer.

“Are you excited for our first practice tomorrow Catra?”

Catra dropped her helmet onto the floor before letting her body collapse onto her twin-sized bed, fully clothed.

“Ugggh.” She groaned into the mattress, coming out muffled to Scorpia’s ears on the other side of the room.

“Geez, what happened to you?”

“What do you think, Detective Scorpia?” She was too tired to keep the annoyance out of her tone, letting it seep into the words she spoke through the mattress.

She heard Scorpia hum thoughtfully before taking a sharp inhale, like she’d just discovered something important. “Is this about Adora?”

Catra let another groan out into her mattress, followed by reaching for a pillow and covering her head. This was incredibly embarrassing, and she _really_ didn’t want to talk about it right now. Especially with Scorpia, who didn’t know the meaning of the word ‘private’.

She sat herself up, taking in a deep breath of fresh air before attempting to talk slowly to Scorpia, pretending she had much more patience than she did. “Listen Scorpia. I told you, I don’t want to talk about it right now.” She got up, turning off the lights and coating the room in darkness as a way to solidify her point.

For a minute, it worked. She started to drift off to sleep, until Scorpia’s voice reached out through the haze. “You’re gonna have to eventually. You know that, right Wildcat?”

Catra released a sigh from deep within her chest, trying to make her anxieties leave with it.

“Yeah. I know.”


	3. Old Habits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the team's first practice, and Adora reflects on the old days.

### Junior Year of High School

From the back line of the court, Adora saw the Horde’s server eyeing her. It was a simple strategy, fire the serve at the ace so they couldn’t get a powerful attack going. If Adora received the ball, she wouldn’t be able to spike it before it was sent over the net again.

That was where the Horde made their first mistake: they focused too much on Adora.

As the ball rocketed over the net and right towards Adora’s chest, she left her position to approach the net.

In her place, Catra appeared out of nowhere. As the ball shot off her forearms and into the air, you could hear the gasp in the auditorium. The crowd was in disbelief as a short brunette materialized in fractions of a second.

Before they could catch their breath, the ball fell from the sky, right in Adora’s favorite spot: slightly away from the net, on the left-center side of the court. Her sneakers squeaked on the hardwood as she paused to leap into the sky, soaring above the three blockers in dark red uniforms on the other side. 

And just like that, the whistles were blown and the video ended.

Catra’s face darkened as the light of the phone screen disappeared. She, along with the rest of the Bright Moon Volleyball Team, was lying on the carpeted floor of a teammate’s basement. The room was dark, except for the flickering blue light of the television at the front of the room. It was starting to get late, and some of her teammates had already fallen asleep. A few others were on their phones or whispering to each other in the dim night.

Adora shifted in the makeshift sleeping bag that she shared with Catra. It was really just a singular pillow, and a large brown blanket that was wide enough to wrap around both of them entirely so they didn’t sleep on the ground. Her bare shoulder brushed against Catra’s cheek as she adjusted her body.

Those gray-blue eyes sparkled with excitement, just like always, and Catra found herself lost in them as she handed back the phone.

Adora struggled to contain herself in a whisper, “Isn’t that crazy? It’s gotten 1,000 views already!”

The video that Adora had insisted that Catra watch was titled “Etheria District Championship Game.” 1,000 views wasn’t too impressive, except that the game happened only a few hours earlier. 

“You know, you were really great in that last set.” Adora’s voice was low, warm. It was comforting to Catra in a way that nothing else had ever managed to be, but it was also incredibly sappy, so she threw a punch into Adora’s shoulders.

“You’re so lame!” Catra refused to let Adora off the hook of her teasing. “Of course I was great, I’m the best libero in the world!” She tilted her chin upwards, closing her eyes in blatant pride.

It was amazing how far Catra had come just in a couple years, Adora thought. When they’d started high school, she had to practically _beg_ Catra to join the team with her. She finally agreed, but she’d grown into the sport as the years swam by. They were even talking about college now. The big leagues.

It made Adora nervous. 

The thought of them not getting into the same school gave her nightmares, ones where she’d wake up in a cold sweat and text Catra pretending to not be able to sleep for _no reason at all_ and Catra would always be awake too, even if it was just to make fun of Adora some more.

Adora put her phone away, resting her eyes on Catra’s wild mane of hair that was beginning to take the shape of some serious bedhead, because she couldn’t meet Catra’s mismatched gaze right now. “Do you think...do you think that we’ll end up at the same school?”

If Catra didn’t know Adora like the back of her own hand, she would’ve been caught off guard at the question. She knew that doubt and anxiety plagued Adora’s mind constantly, and sometimes she could even recognize it before Adora could. They were synced up, always in tune with each other at a level everyone on the team envied.

“Of course we will, dummy!” She plopped her head down onto the pillow, letting a few wisps of hair fall across Adora’s face. “Why wouldn’t we? We’re the best combo out there.”

Adora’s eyes remained glued to the old popcorn ceiling.

The gears ground inside Adora’s skull, and Catra was determined to put the brakes on the rapidly advancing spiral. “Hey.” She curled her body against Adora’s, feeding off of her warmth and using the moment as an excuse to get as close as she could. “We’ve got this.”

Where Adora once looked like she was bearing the weight of the world on her shoulders, she could now feel herself melting against her best friend’s embrace. She raised a welcome arm and allowed Catra to crawl over and drop her head onto Adora’s chest, just like she always did. But this time, she could feel every inch of her body that Catra touched, and she felt a tickle in her stomach. It was unsettling at first, but pleasant. She could stay like this until the day she died.

“Best friends forever?”

“Best friends forever.”

### Adora

Adora listened to Glimmer’s rambling as they exited the cafeteria through tall double-doors. The last of her pre-workout smoothie was sipped away, and her thoughts once again drifted off. She’d started to make some friends at the Center, namely Glimmer, but it was easy to get along with her. Whenever Adora would space out, or stumble over her own awkwardness, Glimmer just picked up the conversation and kept going. It was nice, easy.

“So I say to him, ‘What are you doing tonight?’ and he says that the men’s team was having a game night! I can’t tell if Bow is _intentionally_ avoiding me or is just that oblivious!” Glimmer threw her hands in the air in frustration, bringing Adora back to Earth.

She’d heard about Bow before, some buff guy on the men’s team that Glimmer had taken a liking to.

Adora turned her face to talk to Glimmer, shifting her bag back over one shoulder to keep it stable. “Why don’t you just call it a date? Then there’s no excuse to be avoiding the subject,” she stated matter-of-factly.

Glimmer returned her gaze with a furrowed brow, looking at Adora as if she was speaking another language. “I don’t think you understand, Adora. It’s not that simple.”

“Suuuuure. If you say so.” Adora’s thoughts shifted to the practice in front of them as she felt a chill run up her spine. “What do you know about Coach Angella? What’s she like?”

Glimmer’s irritated face shifted as she put a finger up to her lips in thought. “Well, she was actually my college coach.” Adora’s eyebrows raised in response. “She’s usually pretty sweet. And she cares about her team a lot, but if you piss her off, she can be ruthless. Makes you run laps around the center, clean up the gym by yourself, do diving drills, double up on practice, stuff like that. But it’s only because she wants us to be the best we can be.”

“Wow.” Her eyes found their way to the sky as they broke into the plaza outside. Adora’s thoughts migrated to yesterday’s events as Catra’s words echoed in her ears.

_”Stay out of my life, She-Ra. I don’t want anything to do with you.”_

A heavy sigh escaped Adora’s chest. How was she supposed to move forward after that? 

Her entire life had led up to this. And if Catra let their old relationship get in the way of medaling in a few weeks, she’d have to confront her. That wasn’t exactly something that came easily to Adora, she’d always preferred to run away, let the guilt ride out. But this was different, and Catra wasn’t the only one to blame for everything that’d happened. She recognized that.

“I’d be more worried about Catra if I were you. She almost took a chunk out of your face yesterday. You two don’t look like friends.”

Adora didn’t turn to face Glimmer as they got closer to The Cave. “Yeah. I know.” It hurt to say it, but it was true. When she told Glimmer that, it was more of a wish than the reality. “I just hope her nose is okay.”

She braced herself as the door to the gym pushed open, and that familiar smell hit her. From her spot at the entrance, Adora counted the heads of everyone that had arrived already. Mermista. Lonnie. Perfuma. Spinnerella. Netossa. Entrapta. Scorpia.

And Catra.

Her breath caught in her lungs as Catra looked sidelong at Adora as she came in. She looked shocked to see her at first, like she forgot that Adora was on the same team as her. But there was no heat in the stare, no malice. The air about her was much different than the day before, not exactly friendly and welcoming, but at least it didn’t look like she wanted to stab Adora.

_That’s something at least._

Adora set her things in a locker by the entrance before starting across the courts. Every twitch of muscle felt awkward and unnatural as she tried to make her way to center-court.

This wasn’t gonna come easy.

Before she could make it all the way, someone else entered the gym behind her.

An exceedingly tall, slender woman stood in the entryway of the gym, a soft smile decorating her face as she sized up everyone in the building, her eyes catching on Adora for a moment before moving on.

“Hello everyone, my name is Angella. I’ll be your coach for the next few weeks.” Her voice echoed off the walls and the arched ceiling of the building, sending vibrations through Adora’s body. Her spine immediately stood ramrod-straight, the atmosphere of the room becoming more like the great hall of a castle than a sweaty gymnasium.

“You’ve all been handpicked for this team, and the entire country is placing its trust in you to take home the gold.”

_No pressure._

“I’ve seen all of you play, and you deserve to be here. However -” Angella stopped her stride to look them over once again. “- do not think for a moment that your position on this team is irreplaceable.”

Angella’s presence was palpable. Adora’s eyes shifted to look at Catra, trying to see if she was as nervous as she was. But Catra stood resolute, eyes forward and chin held high. A soldier, listening to her commander. In high school, Catra always goofed off, relying on pure athletic ability to get her through. She talked back to their coach, went off-script during games, skipped practice all the time, that kind of stuff. She had a different air about her now, one that looked more dedicated and committed than anyone else who stood in front of Angella.

_How much have you changed since then, Catra?_

“Now that that’s clear!” Angella clapped her hands together to clear the air. “Let’s get you girls warmed up, and then I want to see how you fit together. We’re going to start off with some three-on-three.”

* * *

Adora found herself in a huddle with Glimmer and Mermista as they formulated an attack plan. Glancing on the other side of the court, Angella chose Catra, Scorpia, and Lonnie to be their opponents. Now, she was standing in the official’s box that straddled the net. She scanned the court, trying to read each and every player’s subtlest movements. Adora watched as she rested her eyes on Catra, then immediately shifted them to Adora. There was something there. Judgement? Curiosity? How much did she know about her?

A bead of sweat coalesced on Adora’s temple as she turned back to her huddle to find Mermista looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

“I hear you’ve got an arm,” Mermista spoke, deadpan.

Adora felt her ears turn hot in shock. Straight to business. “Yeah - I mean, I guess so.”

Glimmer nodded in acknowledgement before speaking in a new tone, more commanding than what Adora had begun to get used to. “First priority for hits will be Adora. If she isn’t in a good spot, I’ll send it to you, Mermista. Adora, stay close to the net. We’ll take as many receives as we can.”

She felt her fingers twitch, aching to finally touch the ball. All this talk was making Adora’s blood pump faster and faster, coursing through her veins and warming up her muscles. She wanted to get out there already. The adrenaline rush of competition hovered in front of her, and the thought of playing against Catra only added fuel to the fire. The same thought played through her head.

_How much have you changed since then, Catra?_

The huddle broke, and Adora turned to face the other side of the court.

Scorpia stood at the net, hands raised and ready to sail above both teams in a fearsome block. Slightly behind her and to the left, Lonnie stared daggers at Adora with her arms flexing in anticipation. And lastly, Catra stood in a half-squat in the center of the back row, single handedly covering the entire back half of the court. Green and blue eyes stared through Adora, and she could’ve sworn she saw a smile play at the corner of her lips.

Angella tossed a ball to Adora, standing at the white stripe that made the bounds of their court.

Glimmer turned her head to shout backwards at her, “Start off strong, Adora!”

The ball felt light in her palm, fingers wrapping around it and satisfying that craving she felt in the huddle. She dribbled it once, twice against the floor, centering herself. Then, both arms tossed it into the air in a high arc.

Three long strides forward.

Her arms swing upwards with the jump, right hand rearing back as she seemed to float a few feet off the ground.

**CRACK.**

The ball rocketed within a hair’s length of the seven-and-a-half foot tall net, sailing towards the back corner.

Before Adora can even land, Catra’s voice ring’s in her ears.

“Mine!”

A body arrives in a blur, digging deep with arms outstretched and one leg extended.

_Woah._

Scorpia backpedals and raises her hands above her head. “Lonnie!”

It’s a basic set, one that almost anyone can complete. The woman with dark brown braids starts her approach as soon as the ball leaves Scorpia’s hands.

Adora instinctually tenses as she remembers Glimmer’s words and gets in position to receive.

Mermista attempts to perform a one-woman block, but the spike blasts through her left arm and lands just out of reach of Adora.

_Oh._

Angella’s commanding voice raised Adora out of her concentration. She suddenly understood where Glimmer learned how to lead.

“One-zero, Catra.”

The fire in Adora’s belly began to roar as she sent Catra a grin from across the court. She knew what it felt like to play _with_ Catra, feeling her presence behind her without looking. It allowed her to take risks and play without regrets, because she knew that Catra would pick up every ball sent their way.

But this...this was _electrifying_.

As the serve transferred over to Scorpia and Adora found her position at the net, she could feel something take over her. The thrill of the game, the opportunity to reconnect with Catra, even in such a small way, was irresistible. Her anxiety flew out the window.

Their eyes found each other through the interlocking fiber of the net, and Adora couldn’t help herself.

“I’ll send it right to you, Catra. Get ready.”

Catra’s eyes, for the briefest of seconds, went wide. They were replaced by hooded lids and a wink.

“Bring it on, princess.” Catra purred.

_Princess?_

If Catra was trying to throw her off of her game, it wasn’t gonna work.

Scorpia’s serve passed over Catra’s head in a tall arc, very different from Adora’s serve. This one was easier.

Mermista’s monotone call echoed across the court. “It’s mine.”

A solid pass went towards Glimmer in the front, and Scorpia started to tag Adora, standing in front of her wherever she went.

Maybe Scorpia had height on her, but Adora was sure to have the speed. She called out, trying to direct Glimmer to her plans, “Right!”

As she shouted, Adora started to sprint from the left wing of the court to the right, passing just around Glimmer while Scorpia’s large body struggled to keep up. She could feel Catra’s eyes on her without even looking.

Adora’s shoes left the hardwood as the volleyball soared in front of her face, a body’s length ahead of Scorpia.

Her right arm raised back, then whipped forward with every atom of strength in her body, willing it to land right in Catra’s lap.

It passed right by Scorpia’s outstretched fingers, and Catra almost laughed at the sight of a ball landing perfectly above her wrists.

As soon as the leather contacted her forearm, the sheer power shot one arm off-center.

Catra shanked a ball.

It bounced behind her, far past the bounds of the court. If she hadn’t have been the one to receive the ball, she could’ve recovered it. But could anyone else have even touched that ball if Adora wasn’t aiming for her?

Adora landed, smirking at Catra on the other side of the court like they were back in high school. She could see Catra’s calves flexing, trying to resist chasing after the ball that she’d already touched.

Catra turned back from following the ball with her eyes, using one hand to brush shaggy bangs back from her forehead.

The breath in Adora’s lungs managed to escape as she watched.

_Fuck._

* * *

Adora used an arm to wipe the sweat off of her forehead, following that by redoing her ponytail as she tried to cool down from practice. Her thoughts were locked onto the three-on-three at the beginning of practice. Catra was an entirely different person from the woman she ran into yesterday. Something was different. Something changed.

Catra was taking a long drink from a water bottle by the bench, and Adora couldn’t tear her eyes away from the sweat dripping down her neck. The eager swallowing. She drank her in with a thirst that took her by surprise.

_What’re you doing, Adora?_

She shook her head clear of the thoughts, realizing that this was the perfect chance to talk to her. This was her chance to _really_ talk to Catra.

“Adora!”

One foot was lifted off the court when she froze in midair.

“Could you come talk to me for a minute?” Angella’s voice was undeniable, but the lost opportunity stood stagnant in her mind.

Adora walked to Angella, the familiar spectre of anxiety returning to her as she wondered what Angella could want to talk about.

“Yes Coach?”

Angella waved the words away. “Please. Angella is fine.” She turned her head to watch Catra leave the gym, then back down at Adora.

“I know you and Catra have a history, Adora.” A chill went down Adora’s spine. “You are both very valuable to this team, and I would love to have you both as starters.”

“But remember, I won’t hesitate to remove one of you if it gets in the way of this team.”

“Just keep that in mind as we move forward, okay?”

Adora was frozen, a statue caught in Medusa’s gaze.

“O-of course Angella.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SERIOUS NOTE: I think it's important to say that we all, as fans of SheRa and as consumers of any art, can enjoy something as well as be critical of it. I think that's something we should all do. I'm going to keep writing because I love these characters and their stories and I love the fanbase that SheRa has, separate from its creators.
> 
> I also wanna say that I'm pretty new to action scenes, so leave as many comments as you want! I THRIVE off of them, so thank you!!


	4. Promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra is getting tired of Adora ignoring her, and it starts to show. Spurred on by Scorpia and Entrapta, as well as memories of their childhood, Catra decides to take action and find Adora, who is taking her frustration out on volleyballs in the gym.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: Sorry to subscribers that might've received two emails about a new chapter being posted! There were some major editing errors in the first one, so I had to delete the chapter and post a new one. It should be fixed now!
> 
> Enjoy!

### Catra

Catra stabbed at the grilled fish on her cafeteria plate, pulling her fork out and going at it again, and again, and again. By the time Scorpia stopped her, the filet looked like it’d been a victim of a mugging gone wrong and Catra still hadn’t eaten a single bite.

“You okay Catra?”

_No, I’m obviously not okay._

“Yes, I’m fine Scorpia! Stop asking me that!” She gestured at the large woman across the table from her with the fork in her hand, and Scorpia’s face reeked of worry instead of the fear that Catra was trying to instill in her. It’s not a big deal! 

Memories of that first practice fermented in the back of her mind, and the longer Adora sat there, sending that arrogant _smirk_ at her from the other side of the court, the more she wanted to stab her own eyes out. What kind of nerve did she have, showing up out of the blue and teasing her like some game of cat and mouse? 

One day she was cradling Catra in her strong, sturdy arms, then she was fucking playing eye games with her, and now radio silence?

Catra really was an idiot, huh? Thinking that Adora had grown, had become better than the girl who left her friends to rot in high school, but apparently she was wrong. And now Catra looked like a goddamn idiot in front of their whole team. Of course she did, that was Adora’s game, wasn’t it? Be some kind of hero that everyone loved, and she was the villain, just because she had the gall to have feelings for once.

Yeah, just like the old days.

“Everything about your current demeanor indicates that you are not, in fact, fine.” Entrapta’s annoyingly calculating voice shook her out of her thoughts and back to the Athlete Center cafeteria. “Also, your aggressive behavior has fluctuated much more than usual ever since our first team practice.”

Catra winced at the words, trying to hold it together as she felt every twitch of her muscle be analyzed by the human computer in front of her. Scorpia made a face like she was desperately trying to hold back from speaking when she heard Entrapta’s final words.

If anything aggravated her more than Adora, it was people who didn’t know when to back off.

Scorpia’s proverbial lid finally burst as she whispered to Entrapta beside her, “Actually, I think this has to do with _Adora_.”

At the sound of her name, Scorpia stoked those familiar coals into flames that burned the edges of Catra’s vision, coloring it a vibrant red. She spat back at the notion, “Scorpia!” 

She didn’t even look guilty. “I’m just trying to help Catra! You’ve clearly got some emotional blocks you need to work through!” Of course, Scorpia insists on being the kind-hearted friend Catra didn’t deserve. No matter how hard she tried to push her away, she always came back to her side with nothing but love. Yeah, she felt a little bad, but she was trying to be better! It took her years to try and not make lashing out in defense her first instinct, and she was doing _so_ well until Adora came along and screwed everything up.

Entrapta ignored Catra’s outcry, focusing on Scorpia’s comment instead. “Hmm. It seems you may be correct. Catra was especially alert during practice, and her demeanor shifted once Adora told her she’d be spiking at her and she still didn’t receive the ball correctly.”

The grip on Catra’s fork tightened.

“That would also explain why Catra’s pupils dilate whenever Adora enters the gym.” Before Catra had a chance to stab her in the throat to shut her up, Entrapta craned her head to look around Catra and towards the other side of the crowded cafeteria.

That took the wind out of Catra’s sails, and curiosity forced her to follow Entrapta’s eyes to a table. “Wha-”

Before she could finish her question, what Catra saw forced her vocal chords to seize up. Across the room, Adora sat at a table with two other people: their starting setter named Sparkles or something, and a man she didn’t recognize who was wearing a crop top. Thankfully, Adora’s eyes were on her food instead of meeting Catra’s, but there was something else about her. This blonde supermodel actually looked like she had something to be _sad_ about, and it honestly brought a little bit of sadistic glee to Catra’s shitty day that almost made up for all the pain she’d been feeling herself. Almost.

Entrapta took out a notebook without breaking her gaze, then started scribbling notes onto it. “Subject A appears emotionally distressed. She is not eating, nor engaging with known associates Glimmer and Bow.”

_Sparkles, Glimmer, what’s the difference?_

Then, what Entrapta was doing hit Catra. “Wait, why the hell are you taking notes about Adora’s mental state?” Her voice was a little louder than she meant it to be, but it was too late. Solely on instinct, she turned completely back towards the table and stared daggers at Entrapta and Scorpia, to which Entrapta was still looking past her and starting to wave.

Catra hissed across the table, trying to not let the entourage of perfection fifty feet behind her hear her, “Entrapta! Are you waving at Adora?!” She was careful to keep her voice barely above a whisper, but pure rage still seeped into it.

Of course, neither of her tablemates were freaking out like she was. Entrapta started writing again, furiously scraping a stubby pencil across her paper. “Subject A seems to have reacted to Subject C shouting her name with surprise and eagerness.” 

_Eagerness?_

She stopped writing in her notepad and looked at Catra, who was still hunched over her plate. “To address your question, I must be hyper aware of my teammates’ emotions and mental faculties if I want to be the best setter possible.”

Catra narrowed her eyes in silent judgement, but that was a pretty valid argument. Although she didn’t know why Entrapta had to be so weird about it.

Scorpia tried to meet Catra’s eyes again, pleading with her to listen. “Hear me out Wildcat-”

“I told you not to call me that.”

Scorpia didn’t hear her. “-I just think you should maybe, I don’t know, talk to Adora?”

Just the idea of Scorpia’s “simple” idea made Catra’s fingertips go numb with aggravation. “You don’t get it. It’s much more complicated than just,” she brought up her hands to do air-quotes, “talking things out.”

A grin grew on Scorpia’s face as she pushed her again. Of course she wasn’t taking this seriously, or maybe she was and was just too much of a gentle giant for any of Catra’s attacks to land properly. Scorpia’s voice was gentle, but there was a forceful care hidden under it, like she was trying to convince Catra to take some cough medicine that she hated.

“Catra, I know this is hard, but we’re your friends and we want to help. And we can’t help if you don’t tell us what you and Adora have got going on.”

Catra struggled to fight the familiar urge to bare her fangs in defense. Yes, that was the easier solution, the one that came naturally to her. But it was also one that she hated about herself. The pain she caused by fighting those that loved her was what got her into this situation in the first place. And she’d been trying so hard, _so_ hard to be better. Was she about to waste all of that progress just because Adora showed up again?

Catra threw her hands up, surrendering to Scorpia’s begging. “Fine! Whatever, I guess. It’s not like my life could get any worse.” Scorpia looked like she was struggling to keep herself from jumping up and down in excitement by doing a little dance with her arms while Entrapta flipped over to a new page in her notebook.

### August of Senior Year

The last of the volleyballs were scooped up and the net was taken down, converting the gymnasium back into the basketball court that it was 99% of the time. Catra was watching her teammates clean up while she lounged on the bleachers off to one side. Across the gym, Adora scrunched her nose at Catra when she saw her letting everyone else do all the work, and Catra just smiled and waved back at her.

_Ha. Cute._

That was one of her favorite Adora faces, an expression of the pseudo-anger that she sent Catra’s way whenever she slacked off or teased Adora, which was always. Sometimes Adora would try and fight her, but she’d end up in an exhausted heap before she could ever catch Catra, and that was nice too.

Soon enough, Catra’s teammates were filing out of the gym and into the humid summer night. Most of them had cars waiting outside, piloted by loving parents who would drive them home and have dinner waiting for them. Adora was always the last to leave practice, either because she was practicing on her own or insisted on helping clean up until the gym was spotless. Either way, that meant Catra was always late to come home. She’d much rather get an earful from her mom than let Adora walk home by herself.

She watched her best friend come out of the supply closet before jogging over to meet Catra with a wide smile on her face. Their coach locked the door behind her before raising a hand and calling after Adora.

“Actually, could I speak with you for a minute? I promise I’ll be quick. Do you mind waiting outside, Catra?”

At that point, Adora was already across the room and had her mouth open to greet Catra, but surprise interrupted her. She looked at Catra, confusion on her face, and all she could do was shrug before Adora ran back to their coach’s side.

_That was weird._

Catra leaned against the brick face of her high school, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for Adora to come out. If Coach had something to say to Adora, he didn’t usually hold it back from the rest of the team, _especially_ Catra. Everyone knew they were inseparable. Catra let her worries rest in the heat that blanketed her.

It’d been a good summer. Not even that, it’d been a _great_ summer. Yeah, they had to do conditioning since it was the off-season, but that just meant more time with Adora. More nights spent walking her home, more sleepovers at Adora’s, and more carefree conversations since school was out. The only bad part was that she had so much fun, the summer passed by her in a flash. 

Now, it was the beginning of August. Adora was obsessing over college applications already, and Catra couldn’t help but get excited too.

_“Think about it Catra! We can finally get out of this dumb town! We can live in the city and start a whole new life!”_

_**We.** _

_Sitting in the only thing resembling a coffee shop in their small town, a tiny Dunkin Donuts by the interstate, Catra stared into Adora’s wistful ocean-blue eyes and let herself imagine it. Only for a second though._

_“Psh. Easy for you to say. You’re Ms. Perfect. You could get into any college you want, probably for free.” The way Catra said it, it sounded like a joke. But she truly believed it._

_Adora stared back at her, resolute as she grabbed Catra by the hand. “You don’t give yourself enough credit! Grades aren’t everything, and any college would be stupid to not give you a full-ride after seeing you play.” A silent moment passed before they both seemed to realize that Adora’s hand still rested on top of Catra’s, followed by both of them snapping their arms back as fast as humanly possible._

Catra laughed at the memory, remembering how red Adora’s face got afterwards. But the thought of going to college with Adora was so enticing. Since she first learned what college was, Catra thought it was something meant for those society deemed perfect. The smartest, the strongest, the best of the best. Like Adora.

But...maybe Adora was right. Maybe they could start again somewhere else, together. Maybe she was good enough for that life. Maybe she was good enough for Adora.

The sound of the door opening beside her brought Catra out of her head and back into the present. Adora held a small piece of paper between her fingers, her eyes glued to it with a soft smile spread across her face. Catra let out a sigh of relief.

_Thank God, I was afraid it was gonna be something bad._

At first, Adora didn’t see her, so Catra took the opportunity to jump out from behind the door, jabbing Adora in the ribs with both hands.

“Ahh!” Adora’s scream was so high-pitched, it got the dogs barking down the street. She turned around to find Catra hunched over and caught red-handed with a grin on her face. “Catra! You scared the heck out of me!”

She straightened herself, standing back up with one hand on her hip. “Serves you right for making me wait out here all alone.” Catra’s eyes shifted to the slip of paper Adora was holding before snatching it from her grasp.

“Hey give that back!” Catra turned her back to her, trying her best to box Adora out as she deciphered the writing. Adora struggled against her, arms flailing in vain attempts to get her prize back and almost tackling Catra in the process.

It was a small piece of notebook paper, torn off from a larger sheet, and all it had on it were ten hastily scribbled numbers. A twinge of jealousy set Catra’s nerves on fire.

Catra held it as far away as she could, just out of reach of Adora’s grasping fingers. “What is this? Did some girl on our team give you her number?” She didn’t mean for it to sound like she was accusing Adora of anything, but that’s definitely what it sounded like. Adora wasn’t hers, _obviously_ , she was just...protective. Yeah, that’s it.

“Ugh! No! If you’d just give it back, I’d tell you!”

Without a word, Catra hesitantly handed Adora the slip of paper where she then tucked it into her backpack. Adora spoke calmly, suppressing an excitement that Catra knew all too well, “Coach wanted to talk to me because apparently the manager of a regional club team called him.”

Catra’s eyes widened at that, and Adora struggled to contain her excitement as she spoke further. Adora had told her earlier in the summer that not many college recruiters paid attention to high school games.

“Remember that video of our championship game last season that got tons of views? Well, she saw it, and she wants me to join her team.”

A brightness filled Catra’s heart as she listened to Adora finish. Their dream, of going to university, playing together, and living their own lives away from this town might actually come true. Not might, it was coming true. This was the first step towards that dream and there wasn’t anything that could stop them now. On top of that, playing on a club team with Adora meant _travelling_ with Adora, going to tournaments across the country and seeing the world. Catra was practically radiating joy as she spoke, letting her excitement overtake her as she grabbed Adora by the shoulders and shook her. “Adora that’s amazing! We get to play on a club team?!” Catra started jumping up and down while using Adora’s shoulders as a support. “We’re gonna be the best in the world! Show all those city-girls who the real athletes are!”

“Ca-”

They’d grab snacks at rest stops on the road. They’d share headphones on the bus as Catra exposes Adora to some _good_ music for once in her life. They’d get to sleep in fancy hotel rooms that the club pays for, ordering room service at 3am.

“Catra-”

They’d go to the biggest tournaments in the country, playing against the best there was. There’d be a college recruiter there, who saw how good the two of them were, and they’d get a full-ride scholarship to the best university in the country. They’d do all of it, together.

**“Catra!”**

Adora’s voice brought her back, and Catra was gone from the college dorm that they were going to share and back outside their high school, and Adora’s eyes held something sad in them. 

Something was wrong. Why was something wrong? They should be happy, they should be celebrating!

“What is it?”

“They...they didn’t invite you.”

It took a minute for Catra’s mind to process what Adora said to her. At first, she thought she must have misheard her, that her ears were playing tricks on her because of the thick, humid air that made it hard to breathe. Then, she thought that there must be some mistake. Did Coach want to talk to her too? They were talking about the same video, right? Why wouldn’t they want her, because they thought Adora was _better_ than her? That’s what her mind stuck to when she came back.

“ _What!?_ I work just as hard as you, and I do just as well in games!” Her hands balled into fists as Catra let the anger wash over her. This wasn’t fair. None of this was fair, and they were going to take Adora away from her. She started walking away from the gym, suddenly uncomfortable in the fluorescent lights as she stalked towards the street.

Adora caught up with her before she could get too far, but Catra refused to stop, so Adora matched her pace. “Catra-I, I asked Coach if you could join too but he said something about how you weren’t a good… _teammate_ ".

At that, Catra had to admit that the scumbag had a point. Yeah, she was crucial to them winning, but she blatantly favored Adora when it came to passes and she didn’t help clean up after practice. She was also late a lot. But _still_.

“Ugggh. What- _ever_ , I don’t even care.” That was a pathetic attempt at a lie, but she truly didn’t care enough to try to hide her feelings on that front. She wanted Adora to know how hurt she was, she just wasn’t brave enough to say it out loud. “Just join your stupid team.”

Adora whined after her. “Catraaa. Don’t be like this, please. Besides, if I decide to join, I’m not gonna quit our team!”

She let herself indulge in that faint light of hope Adora offered, as much as she was hesitant to. Her eyes shifted to the blue ones beside her on the dark sidewalk as she spoke weakly, “Really?”

“Of course! I would never do that. What kind of ace would I be if I let you—I mean—the team down?” She brought her hands to her hips as she spoke, ballooning her chest like she was Wonder Woman.

Catra had to laugh at the gesture. Adora always knew how to make her feel better, but she couldn’t let that go to her head.

“Psh, you’re not an ace. All you do is hit balls that people put in front of you. I’m pretty sure an ace can receive too, and you’re shitty at that.”

“Hey, language! And ouch!” Adora put a hand over her heart like she’d been stabbed. “Why would I need to practice receiving when you can cover the entire court by yourself?”

Adora’s words rang in her ears, and Catra could feel warmth creeping up her neck and into her cheeks. She inspected them with every ounce of effort she had, scanning over every syllable with a microscope and searching for hints of sarcasm or teasing before she let herself fully absorb Adora’s compliment.

Inevitably, there was none. Adora’s voice rang with weight and confidence, so much so that Catra started to believe it herself.

She sat in the feeling for a minute, letting herself enjoy the praise of someone so special to her. The night owed her that much, even if it didn’t entirely settle the pit quickly forming in her stomach.

Like always, Adora could read her mind.

“I’m not leaving, Catra. Everything together.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

### Catra

Her legs had a mind of their own, carrying Catra across the campus as her mind fought back and forth inside her head. Diving into her past with Scorpia and Entrapta and then shifting back to the present—where Adora was still ignoring her—gave her whiplash. It was the day after and she still hadn’t recovered. She didn’t exactly make it a habit to dive back into painful memories with Adora after all, even though it’d been happening more and more lately.

Catra didn’t tell them _everything_ , obviously. She told them how they were best friends for years, and things were going great until they weren’t anymore. The irony of volleyball tearing them apart and bringing them back together again wasn’t lost on her.

No, it wasn’t volleyball, the sport that Catra had sunk the last decade of her life into. It was Adora, and it was going to happen one way or another.

Then what’s the point of any of this? If that’s true, why should she try to even try to talk to Adora?

The first thought that came to Catra was that it would be nice to see Adora cry again, but Scorpia’s ever-so wise words rang soon after.

_If you won’t do it for Adora, and you can’t do it for yourself, then do it for the team._

“Uggggggh.”

Yeah, she guessed it probably wouldn’t be good for their Olympic dreams if their lowly libero and the most famous outside hitter in women’s volleyball both hated each other too much to play. Well, Catra hated Adora at least. She kept getting mixed signals from Adora. And she’d be damned if _Adora_ would achieve her dream of playing at the Olympics and _she_ didn’t because of some stupid childhood drama.

That settles it. Adora was going to own up to the past and stop pretending that she didn’t exist, because Catra would rather die than let Adora defeat her like that again.

After pacing back and forth for thirty minutes in the parking lot after her latest bike ride, Catra stormed off towards The Cave. Pure spite was fueling every twitch of her muscle, and she gladly allowed it, much preferring it to the nervousness and frustration plaguing her all day long.

Scorpia said that she’d seen Adora practicing serves in the gym every night for the past week. No Sparkles, no Arrowboy, no Scorpia, no Entrapta. That’s exactly where Catra wanted her. She didn’t want there to be any escape from her retribution, because Adora was gonna _listen_ to her for once, without being interrupted by a volleyball hitting her in the face or some coach holding Adora back to ‘talk.’

The Cave began to loom in the distance as sets of tiny daggers dug into Catra’s palms. Storm clouds loomed past the gym, occasionally shooting off a bolt of lightning with no thunder as its partner.

_Hold on to that spite. Hold on to the anger, the pain._

Briefly stopping in front of the entrance, Catra took a deep breath before setting her jaw and pressing forward.

### Adora

It’d been a few days since that first practice, when Catra caught Adora’s eye and they got a chance to play like they used to. It was short-lived though, thanks to Coach Angella’s strange warning.

_How would our history get in the way of the team anyway?_

Another ball floated upwards into the air as Adora bent her knees and jumped forward, rearing one arm back before slamming the ball with every ounce of pent-up frustration she was feeling.

In the back corner of the court, it collided with the floor with much more force than Adora meant to put into it, sending it bouncing off the wall and back towards her.

A deep breath filled her lungs.

_I mean, not that I want to get close with Catra again. Who cares? Not me._

The image of Catra’s sleek arms and unusually sharp canines stuck in Adora’s mind. When the hell did she get so _hot_? And that short, cropped hair that allowed a full view of her sloping neck...it looked so soft, flawless. She wondered how it would feel to touch...NO! GET IT TOGETHER ADORA.

Besides, as much as she wanted to stitch those wounds back together, Angella wouldn’t let it happen. And Catra would literally _kill_ her if she got in the way of them doing well at the Olympics this year. 

That wasn’t even mentioning what happened...Adora wanted to talk about it. She’d been wanting to talk about it ever since high school. And yet here it was, hanging around her like a thick, dark cloud of smoke that held her by the throat, threatening to strangle her if she indulged it too much.

So, what was there to do?

She could do what she had been doing, avoiding Catra as much as she could and listening obediently to Coach Angella. Pros: playing on the team and not getting her throat slit by Catra. Cons: having to avoid Catra and ignore her during practice, which made her play worse _and_ made her heart hurt so badly she thought she was going to give up the ghost.

Or, she could try talking to Catra. Communicating with her in the hopes that they could mend this shell of a friendship into something healthy and whole again. Pros: being with Catra, in whatever form that was. Cons: getting kicked off of the starting lineup, Catra possibly not reciprocating those feelings and dropping her even faster than the first time, and sinking to rock bottom if it goes poorly. High risk, high reward.

But the guilt was eating away at her. How she let Catra down, all because she cared _too much_. That incessant need to be the best she could be, to be there for her team, for Catra, for everyone. It overrides everything.

_I’m the ace. I’m the one that they look towards when we’re down on our luck. I’m the one they rely on, to always be able to dig us out of whatever hole they were in. I have to be there. For them. Not just Catra, but for everyone._

Feeling secure in her decision to just listen to Angella’s and try her best to be the rock that the team needed, Adora reached for another ball. Just because she’d decided to put her own feelings aside for the team didn’t mean she had to be happy about it.

Palming one and setting up for another serve, the sound of the door to the gym unlatching and opening caught her ears. She focused on the serve in front of her. People came in there all the time after all, doing their own solo practices or working with a teammate.

_Focus. Toss the ball in a high arc. One, two, three steps. Jump, slam it with your right hand towards the back corner. Get it as close as you can to the white stripe running along the top of the net._

Quick footsteps from the person behind her.

_Focus._

**”Adora!”**

_That_ voice shook her out of her concentration better than a bucket of ice cold water could. Whipping her head around, there she was. She took all of her in at once. Catra, dressed in black skinny jeans tucked into tall boots and an unzipped leather jacket to match. A motorcycle helmet was cradled under her arm, and her hair was cursed with the meanest hat-hair Adora had ever seen.

In a few words, Catra looked pissed. Beyond pissed. And yet somehow she wasn’t baring her teeth like Adora knew she did when she was mad. She was resolute, her lips in a thin line, but she didn’t look like she was prepared to murder someone at the drop of a hat.

Adora stuttered her words, suddenly realizing that Catra wasn’t here to practice. “Oh! Uh, hi Catra.”

_Remember what Angella said. Don’t let your history get in the way of the team._

But she wanted it to, she wanted it so badly it hurt.

Catra stomped towards her, dropping her helmet on the hardwood as she got closer. “Don’t you ‘Hi Catra’ me! We need to talk.” At this point, she was on her, looking up at Adora with a look that said _Don’t you dare try to argue with me._

Adora knew what this was about. Of course she knew, but she couldn’t think of what to say, so Catra barreled forward.

“Why the hell have you been avoiding me like the plague? And you better have a good fucking excuse.”

Adora faltered, cracking under the weight of Catra’s accusation. Angella’s words echoed in her mind, and she had to make a decision whether to tell Catra or not.

The team.

Or Catra.

The team.

Catra.

_Catra._

When was she going to get another chance like this? When would she be able to make things right if not now? Catra, her best friend for as long as she remembered, was handing her the opportunity to make things right on a silver platter.

How could she say no to that? How could she choose to be the person she was so afraid of becoming?

Adora dropped the ball she was holding with one hand. She stared into mismatched green and blue eyes, filled to the brim with pain, hurt, and betrayal. The choice was obvious, even if it meant she would be taken off the team.

“Catra…” Her voice broke as she said her name, and the air inside the gymnasium seemed to grow heavy as it pressed down on the two of them. “I-I’m sorry.”

_C’mon Adora, you need to do better than that!_

Catra’s entire demeanor shifted, a look of disgust and balled up fists replacing the fire that burned behind those beautiful eyes. “Is that it? Is that all you have to say?” Her words broke something inside of Adora, causing her chest to ache as if her own heart had chosen now to give out.

_Even when you try to fix things, you just make them worse._

Adora started grasping for handholds in the suddenly claustrophobic gym, trying to overcome the weights tied around her ankles that pulled her into darkness as she watched what she was doing to Catra. This familiar feeling, this pain that she was causing by choosing the team, it wasn’t going to happen again.

### October of Senior Year

Catra watched Adora’s back, standing ready to receive another monster spike that came in her area of the court. She could feel Adora’s presence more than see it, a gravitational pull that always allowed her to know exactly where she was on the court, and exactly what she was going to do next. That was their real superpower, it wasn’t being able to receive and spike well.

To Catra’s disappointment, this serve went to her right, out of reach for her but in range of their teammate. As she passed it to their setter up front, Catra could feel Adora tracking it with her head, tensing her calves as she waited for her approach to start.

Adora was winded. Way more than usual by the time the second set had rolled around. The game wasn’t a difficult one, they’d beaten Mystacor before, and they’d won the first set handily, but this second set was a struggle. More than a few times, Adora had called for a spike and it turned out sloppy, barely making it past the blockers that tracked her every move or getting it blocked outright.

As Catra watched, stuck on the ground, Adora raised her hand with eyes glued to their setter who could feel the energy emanating from her.

Then, the set came. Adora’s favorite. It arched from the right to the left, meeting Adora mid-air after her approach.

She wasn’t as high as she usually was, Catra noted. The three blockers lined up against her had easily figured out their plan, and Adora was too confident to care that their opposition had a bead on her.

Normally, Catra loved that about Adora.

Now, it made a raging fire burn behind her eyes.

Adora made contact with the ball, using the last of her strength to try and hit it through the raised hands of Mystacor’s front row.

**WHAM.**

It ricocheted off the palm of the middle one, rocketing back towards the ground.

Catra knew this would happen, and she wasn’t about to let them overtake Adora once again.

She dove forward, arms outstretched like two bars of steel, barely sliding a hand underneath the ball before it hit the ground and lost them another point.

Cheers erupted from the stands, Catra’s voice cutting through them as she shouted, “One more!”

Adora landed, stumbling a bit on her feet before catching her balance again. She looked back at Catra on the ground, and their eyes held an entire conversation.

 _I’ve got your back._  
Adora broke their contact, looking again at the setter who was about to decide the fate of the ball again. She saw Adora raise her hand again, hesitation in her eyes as she sent another set towards Adora. The same one.

_When we’re behind, the ball goes to the ace._

Another three-step approach, Adora preparing to launch herself upwards and meet those blockers in battle once again.

Left foot.

Right foot.

Left.

But there was no jump. No spike. No battle.

As the final step of her approach hit the ground, Catra saw Adora’s ankle roll, bending at an unnatural angle.

The ball went past her, landing outside the court as Mystacor gained another point.

The court was silent except for the sound of Adora’s knees hitting the mahogany as she doubled over in pain.

In a second, Catra was by her side. Hand resting on her back.

The panic set in.

“Adora?! Adora are you okay?”

She didn’t say anything at first, only meeting Catra’s eyes as she bit her lip and tears started to coalesce, trying her best not to cry out.

Their coach came next, Adora’s face setting into stone as soon as she saw his shoes in the periphery.

Then the conference medic, who asked if she could walk.

Adora’s voice was shaky, but firm. “Yeah. I think so.”

Catra was by her side as she tried to stand up, hands within an inch of her to catch her if she fell again.

Of course, she did.

_Damnit Adora. Stop being the hero for once._

Catra caught her, then the medic had Adora put her arms around his and their coach's shoulders before bringing Adora to the bench. The medic asked her some questions that Catra couldn’t hear, and Adora responded by nodding or shaking her head. As she was examined, Coach put in a substitute for Adora.

Catra couldn’t focus, her attention shifting towards their newly elected captain, her trademark ponytail hidden underneath a towel that covered her head. A bag of ice rested on her ankle, but Catra couldn’t pull herself away from the girl hiding her face from her team.

The game started again.

Somehow, they managed to come back from their deficit and beat Mystacor in the third, tiebreaker set. The loss of Adora hit them hard, but they barely sneaked out a win against a team that they were favored in by a large margin.

The players shook hands, told each other “Good game,” and dispersed. Adora stayed on the bench. Silent. Hiding from her teammates. 

After they were gone, Catra reached a hand out to help her up.

“You gonna stay there all day?”

Adora looked up, meeting Catra’s eyes.

It was a look they shared more and more recently. Behind those blue, misty eyes, Adora was ashamed. Guilty. Catra was angry. Hurt.

Adora grabbed her hand and used Catra’s support to haul herself up, Catra slipping under her left arm to support her weak side. They were silent as they left the gym, heading towards the locker room to change out of their jerseys and into their normal clothes.

Setting Adora down on one of the benches that lined the lockers, Catra let herself stay standing, drilling her eyes into one of the walls instead of daring to look at her _best friend_.

After a few minutes of the tension in the room rising until it became unbearable, Adora broke the silence with a somber apology.

“I’m sorry.”

There it was, what Catra knew was going to happen all along. The anger she had been fighting back for weeks finally overtook her, spinning around to see Adora still staring at the ground.

“What the hell are you sorry for Adora?”

No response.

Catra gave her a chance to reply, but there was nothing escaping Adora’s pink, flushed lips.

Catra continued, letting her built-up pain and sorrow inflate her words as she shot them towards Adora. “Are you sorry for hurting yourself? Is that what this is about?” Adora flinched as she spoke, Catra’s words hitting their mark. “That’s rich, Adora. God that’s rich.” She let out a chuckle as she finished, and Adora’s hunched form straightened as she sat up and finally met Catra’s accusatory eyes.

Strength filled her veins, the only thing keeping her from storming across the locker room and meeting Catra where she stood was her injured ankle. “Yes, Catra. I am sorry. I’m sorry I got taken out of the game. I’m sorry I couldn’t carry us to the end!”

Catra scoffed at her, shouting back with venom. “ _That’s_ what you think this is about? This stupid fucking game?!” Adora’s eyes went wide in realization, but she stayed resolute under Catra’s barrage. “You don’t get it, do you Adora? Do you even know why you got hurt today?”

She was upon Adora now, shouting in her face. All the times Adora was late to practice, all the times she could barely hold a conversation because she was too tired, all the times she said that she couldn’t hang out with Catra because she had practice with her club team. The pain of all of it came crashing down onto Catra’s shoulders at once. Adora didn’t leave her after she got that invitation. It came slowly instead, the time they spent together becoming rarer and rarer until they barely knew what was going on in each other’s lives anymore.

“You’ve been working, day and night, for _months_ , without any rest. What the hell did you think was going to happen?!”

Yeah, Catra was right. She was working nonstop. But it was because she was keeping her promise, to Catra _and_ her team. She owed them that much. If she had to practice eight hours a day and manage playing games with two teams to keep her word, then she would. 

Adora narrowed her eyes as she spoke with force, right into Catra’s face a few inches from hers. “I’m trying as hard as I can, Catra.”

Catra could feel the hot breath washing over her face, and it only made her angrier. “How stupid are you Adora? You really thought you could play for two different teams, and it would be fine? You know we have our own tournament too, right? That we’ve been practicing for weeks!”

Adora fought back a weight behind her words that neither of them fully understood, “Why am I not good enough for you, Catra? I promised I wouldn’t leave and I didn’t.”

“You might as well have! You’re never around anymore, and when you do show up, you’re not _really_ here! You’re thinking about how you should be off, playing with a team that’s better than us, aren’t you?”

_You don't mean that, Catra._

Adora tried to stand in denial of Catra’s accusation, falling against the locker and using one hand to steady herself. They were shouting louder and louder, voices echoing off the lockers and circling back to them. “Is that what this is about? I knew it! You are jealous!”

“So what if I am?! I’m not allowed to be upset that I’m second best to you, _again_? The golden child, so perfect in every way that she can’t say no to an offer, can she?”

_You’re not jealous, you’re upset that she’s slipping away._

At that point, it all came crashing down. The insecurities, the desires, the pain. The thread connecting two best friends being severed right before their very eyes. Only a few fraying strands remained, stretched taut in midair with a knife’s edge hovering above them.

“Why can’t you just be happy for me, Catra?” Be happy that your _friend_ is successful?”

Another thread was cut.

“Happy?!” Catra spoke sarcastically, “Oh I’m _sooo_ happy that my best friend is moving on from me and going on to better, brighter things! Is that what you want to hear?”

And another.

Adora stumbled forward, trying and failing to grab at the severed strings but barely catching herself before falling face first onto the tile. “Ugh! No, Catra!”

“Then what do you want, Adora?”

“I...Catra it’s not that simple!” She had obligations to her team, both of them. She had obligations to Catra, to all of them. What she wanted didn’t matter.

A voice reverberated inside Catra’s head. _She’s already made her choice._ Pain filled every cell of Catra’s body at the recognition, the acceptance of it all. She wasn’t what Adora chose. She should’ve known that she would never be what Adora chose. A darkness engulfed her vision, clouding out everything and everyone except for the girl in front of her. The girl she’d spent years with, every day, side by side through everything. And now, all she could do was try to run away from the pain.

“Oh, it is that simple, Adora.” Her voice started to quiver, but Catra seized it by the throat before it betrayed any of her weakness. “Just _go_.”

Adora raised one hand, reaching out towards her. “Catra-”

“ **Go!** ”

And that was it. The last thread, tearing in half and falling to the ground in between them. The wake of fallout hung in the air around them, poisoning this place forever.

Adora listened. She took Catra’s advice, limping out the door and into the night.

She didn’t show up at the next practice. And the one after that.

Without Adora, they lost in the quarterfinals of the district tournament.

### Adora

Catra stood in front of Adora. This was a second chance, handed to her by the universe. No, it wasn’t handed to her by some higher deity, it was handed to her by Catra. The girl she knew all those years ago had made a leap of faith, and all Adora had to do was catch her.

_Can you even do that?_

She summoned all the bravery she had, swallowing her anxieties in that stuffy gym. “I’m not going to apologize for joining that team, Catra.”

Catra’s eyes went wide in surprise and mild annoyance, but there wasn’t any anger that Adora could see. So that was an improvement.

A razor sharp fingertip painted with black nail polish stabbed Adora in the sternum, breaking her focus as blue and green eyes stared deeper into her. 

Catra’s voice was almost playful, sucking Adora into a long-gone world filled with teasing and sleepovers.

“I’m glad you’re not as stupid as you look.”

She pulled her finger back and rested both hands on her hips, cocking them to one side without breaking eye contact. The ghost of her nail burned a hole straight through Adora’s chest and into her heart.

Adora held on to the wave of encouragement Catra unknowingly sent her way, riding it towards the shoreline in the distance. “But you deserved better than to be left in the dark like that. I’m sorry for running away back then. You don’t have to forgive me, and I know it’s impossible to get back what we used to have, but I’d really like to try. And if you need time, that’s fine. I’ll be here when you’re ready. And if you don’t want to, then just tell me and I won’t bother you.”

With every word that Adora spoke, Adora felt the urge to run out of that gym coming over her stronger and stronger. She fought it back, trying to get to the point as Catra stood impatiently before her, analyzing every movement of Adora’s lips until she cut in.

“Y’know Adora, I appreciate that you managed to put together an apology to your _best friend_ after eight years. But I’m a big girl, so you’re a little late for that.” The end of Catra’s sentence dipped into indignation, and Adora felt the guilt inflaming the scar tissue that surrounded their past again. The finger that had pressed into Adora’s chest moved to her forehead, knocking Adora back in shock.

Catra pushed forward, chasing after Adora as she backpedalled. “If I’m being honest, I’m _more_ upset that you had the nerve to avoid me for the past week and pretend like I didn’t exist.”

Her footsteps traced Adora’s until she collided with the waist-high barrier that lined the center court of the gym. Adora’s arms braced her impact, the skin on her calves brushing against the plush plastic as Catra followed her in-step.

Catra’s voice was low as she looked up at Adora’s face, and Adora could smell the rich, hazelnut coffee on her breath that washed over her bare neck. Mixed eyes filled with long-hidden scars stared back at her.

“Why the hell did you do that, Adora? Why did you come in here, into _my_ life, only to act like you don’t know me? Why would you put me through that, then just hide in here like a coward?”

A war raged inside Adora as she remembered Catra’s words when she showed up on her first day in Colorado Springs. Then, Angella’s suspicious warning rang with it. If she told her, it could jeopardize both of their positions on the team. If she didn’t, she’d almost certainly lose Catra again. The smoke surrounding her tightened its grip around her throat, making Adora struggle to bring a full breath into her lungs.

_There isn’t a choice. Not really._

Adora fought back the warmth creeping up her neck to force a whisper out, just loud enough so the woman in front of her to hear it. “I wanted to find you, to chase after you as soon as I saw you, but you ran away.”

Catra’s form shrank.

“You told me to stay away.” It hurt to think about, and it hurt even more to see Catra shrink into herself as she realized what she’d done, but Adora pushed forwards. “Even after that though, I wanted to find you. To talk about all of this. But…”

Catra perked up, pushing forward and _into_ Adora’s chest as she seemed to try to push Adora’s words out of her with force. But the heat emanating from her mixed with Adora’s, swirling in her stomach and shooting shots of warmth into her fingertips. She cleared her throat, trying to ease the tension, but the feeling of Catra’s body against hers was making her head swim. “But...Angella...She, she told me to stay away.”

As she finished, Catra stepped back, leaving a several foot gap between them as shock painted her expression. “What?! You’re lying.”

Adora struggled to catch her breath as the scent of hazelnut left her senses. Then, the accusation hit her like a truck. “What? Why the hell would I lie?”

“Um, probably because you just want to pin an excuse on someone else!”

Adora gasped. “I would not do that!”

“You totally would!”

“No, I wouldn’t! She pulled me aside after our first practice, and she told me that-” Adora stuttered as she reached the crux of the statement, turning away from Catra’s awaiting eyes to try and make the delivery easier. “She said...she said that if our _history_ gets in the way of the team, she wouldn’t hesitate to replace us.” Just saying it made Adora want to retch where she stood.

Catra looked skeptical at first, unwilling to believe the restriction that it put on them. Then, confusion painted her as she seemed to believe Adora for the time being. “Wait, so why the hell did you avoid me altogether if she just said that our ‘history’ couldn’t get in the way of the team?”

It was Adora’s turn to freeze up, realizing the corner she’d backed into much too late to be avoided. In truth, there were a few reasons. She knew that if she won the jackpot and reconciled with Catra, then it would be impossible for things to be casual in any shape or form. They were best friends after all, and old habits die hard. Adora also knew that Catra had a tendency to not let _anything_ go, and that things would come up no matter how hard either of them tried.

She skipped over the first reason, testing the waters with a soft chuckle and sending a playful rib towards Catra. “Y’know, I don’t think you’re one to talk when it comes to not letting the past get in the way of the future.”

Catra scoffed back, accepting the jab but still feigning offense. “Wow, harsh much? Okay I get it, maybe I shouldn’t’ve yelled at you when you showed up. That’s on me but you surprised me! What was I supposed to do? Be all, ‘Oh hi Adora! How ya been? Say hi to the wife and kids!’”

Adora let a laugh rack her lungs at Catra’s old man impression, and it felt...good. For the first time in almost a decade, Adora felt truly comfortable where she was. Catra in front of her, cracking little jokes like she used to, and Adora being the only audience member in the whole world. It was nice. Better than nice. It was the first breath of fresh air after almost a decade of choking on smog. She could feel the threads reconnecting, tying knots where they snapped. They were still fragile, but with time and a lot of care, they’d be even stronger than before.

There was a lot more work to do, and Adora had her fair share of issues to get through. But for that night, she let herself bathe in the laugh of the woman in front of her, dreaming of nothing but hazelnut and leather.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow y'all. First off, this chapter is WAY longer than the others (and longer than any chapter I've ever written), so I apologize to those who like shorter chapters and I congratulate those who like longer ones! This one's worth it though, it's so important. I'm also sorry this one took a while. I've been battling some serious writer's block as well as general melancholia that I only recently overcame, but I'm still dealing with classes and my job too so! It's tough out here!


	5. Rematch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glimmer organizes a 2v2 tournament as a fun team-building activity for the team. Catra and Adora get used to playing on the same side of the net again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's another long one! It's 99% volleyball, so if you like that, congrats! After this, it'll be more talking and other activities for a while, so don't worry if you're not super into action-filled chapters. I also originally planned for this chapter to be like twice as long, but it kind of got away from me and I didn't want to leave y'all hanging, so here it is!
> 
> Also, I made a Twitter account for She-Ra stuff so follow me! I talk a lot about my fics and retweet a bunch of awesome art, and I'd love to talk to all of you if you want! Here's my username: @billyspilgrimag

### Adora

“You WHAT?!”

Glimmer’s shrill shout stung Adora’s psyche, and she frantically reached over Bow’s body on the bench press as she grasped for Glimmer’s mouth with a free hand.

“Shhhh! Don’t be so loud!” Adora glanced around the expansive weight room, desperately searching to see if anyone had shown up and heard their conversation. So far, it was just her, Glimmer, and Bow. She let out a sigh of relief, letting her shoulders slack and removing her hand.

Glimmer took advantage of her freedom. “Um, excuse me! I don’t get to be surprised that my friend made up with her _ex_ from high school?”

At the suggestion, Adora felt a rush of adrenaline be injected into her bloodstream, suddenly finding it hard to breathe even though the large garage doors to the outside were all open. “Okay we weren’t exes Glimmer, we were just friends!”

Bow set his bar down, sitting up from his position between the two women spotting him. “With all due respect Adora, it sounds a little like you were more than friends. You had a best friend for most of your childhood, you had a big fallout, and you ended up hating each other for years afterwards. Most casual friendships don’t make you simultaneously hate and miss the other person for almost a decade after the fact.”

“Okay, not helping Bow!”

Glimmer chimed in, taking more pot-shots at Adora. “Yeah! Don’t blame me! I just call it like I see it.”

Adora waved away the accusations, trying desperately to keep her mind from sailing away from port and towards Catra Island, dressed head-to-toe in black leather and denim. She gestured for Bow to move, then straddled the bench and laid her back on the plastic cushion at the center of the room. After a brief stretch for her shoulders, she easily lifted Bow’s weight off its saddles and started lifting.

The burning of her biceps and chest was sufficient enough to pull her mind away from the night before, and with it Adora’s newfound… _whatever_ with her old best friend. She was grateful to be friends again, and she was certain of that, even though she was hyper-aware of how Catra had changed since they last parted ways. Physically and emotionally. Her peace was quickly interrupted as Glimmer and Bow kept talking with their eyes on her.

Glimmer stood with arms crossed, grumbling to the man next to her, “I heard a rumor that Angella is still finalizing our starting seven.”

Bow’s jaw dropped when he heard that, and Adora’s would have too if she wasn’t lifting almost twice her own body weight.

“What?! The Olympics start in a few weeks!”

_Holy shit. Was it that close already?_

“I know!” Glimmer threw her hands out, pleading for some sympathy. “Mermista told me that she’s still on the fence for one or two positions. I’m sure I’ll be the starting setter-”

“Of course.”

“-and there’s no way that Adora isn’t starting.”

Flashes of Angella’s warning swam through Adora’s head. Of all those on the team, she was certain that she was the one whose position was in jeopardy. Her worst fear was on the verge of coming true. No, not her _worst_ fear, she’d narrowly avoided that. But she signed up for this when she made up with Catra the night before. If that’s how it went, so be it, but she wasn’t going down without a fight.

As if on cue, Lonnie strolled into the weight room.

Glimmer and Bow’s blind confidence in Adora kept them from acknowledging the rival left-side hitter’s entrance, or the immediate worry that twisted itself into Adora’s eyes. In the commotion of making things better with Catra, Adora had managed to forget that there were two outside hitters on this team. Ultimately, one of them better get used to riding the bench. They’d inevitably substitute each other sometimes, but one of them would have to take the lead.

Adora hadn’t interacted with Lonnie much since she arrived. But god, she was intimidating. The only one that rivaled her arms was Scorpia, and Lonnie was probably ten times smarter. She hung out with a couple guys from the men’s team a lot, but the friendliest thing Adora had witnessed was incessant teasing of the scrawny blond dude.

Lonnie’s dark brown eyes met Adora’s as she sat down at one of the machines, and there was friction between them. She stared back with malice dripping from rich, brown irises until Adora turned to face the ceiling again. 

The weight pressing down on her palms centered Adora, losing her train of thought as she focused on the cold steel until her biceps felt like they would burst. She sat up on the bench, suddenly realizing that Bow and Glimmer had had an entire conversation right in front of her without catching a word of it.

“Did you get any of that Adora?” Glimmer crossed her arms, knowing the answer to her question but wanting Adora to admit it herself.

She scratched the back of her neck nervously, “No, uh...sorry.”

Glimmer continued, bringing Adora in, “We were just talking about the tournament tonight! Are you coming?”

“Um...yes? Maybe? What’s happening?”

“Well, since we haven’t really had any get-togethers, I figured we could use some team building activities to get us used to working together!”

Adora did her best to hold the groan in. Yeah, more friends sounded great, but she wasn’t exactly the social type. Large groups made her nervous, even if Glimmer was right about a general lack of cohesion between them. She let the speech continue.

“So I was brainstorming with Bow,” he nodded in acknowledgement, “and we were thinking a relaxing little 2v2 tournament would be fun! I would’ve picked something else to take our minds off of things, but I don’t really know what we all have in common other than volleyball…and this will help us get to know each other better! Since I’m organizing it, I’m randomly assigning everyone to partners, and the winner gets THIS!” Glimmer pulled a paper card out of her back pocket, its surface almost entirely covered in holes that had been punched out of it.

Adora leaned forward to get a better look at the grand prize. “Is that...a frozen yogurt punch card?”

“Uh, yeah! Who doesn’t love frozen yogurt?”

_Riiiight._

“Besides, it’s the only thing I have to give away and I want this to be as stress free as possible, so I didn’t tell Angella.”

Bow broke his silence now, shifting from his silent acknowledgment of Glimmer’s words to verbal support. “I think it’s a great idea. We did something like this on the men’s team, and it worked out great! We’re all besties now.”

Taking her mind off of everything that was happening did sound kind of nice, and it would probably help relieve some of the nerves that Adora was struggling to shake. 

“Oh what the hell. Yeah, I’ll come play.”

Bow and Glimmer bumped fists in celebration before grabbing their stuff and starting out the door to get ready for the day. Adora followed, but Lonnie’s presence pulled her back for just a second as she watched the other woman in the corner of the room. Adora realized something in that moment, how high the stakes were for this team. Everyone wanted to be a starter, obviously. Adora was no exception to the rule, but there was more than just pride in her desire to be on the court in front of millions. This was her last chance to play with Catra again. Probably for the rest of their lives.

Adora left the room, jogging after her friends with the weight of the world on her shoulders.

* * *

As she waited for the rest of her teammates to file into the gym, Adora started hopping up and down to get her blood flowing into her legs and arms. This morning, she wasn’t so sure about this friendly tournament. But her excitement had gotten the best of her as the day went on until she started to buzz with anticipation. The worst part about training with the national team was that you couldn’t really scrimmage with other teams. Inevitably, it allowed everyone to get so excited for the Olympics that they played even better than normal, but it was like having an itch for _weeks_ that you couldn’t quite reach.

Glimmer sat behind her on the bench, tapping through her phone. “Alright, I’ve got the teams ready. And it looks like everyone’s finally here.” She winked at Adora, catching her off guard as she tracked her eyes to the entrance of the gym, where Catra followed Scorpia and Entrapta inside, grumbling under her breath the whole way.

_Oh shit, I didn’t think about Catra playing too. I figured she’d rather sit in her room on her phone._

Glimmer did a good job of rounding people up on such short notice. Literally everyone was there. Catra, Scorpia, Entrapta, Mermista, Perfuma, Netossa, Spinnerella, Bow, Glimmer, a few guys from the men’s team that Adora had seen around, and _Lonnie_.

Adora felt the temperature in the room rise a few degrees as she saw her, the sheer pressure of Lonnie being enough to take her focus off of Catra for once. That is, until Adora felt those blue and green eyes rest on her again, making every hair on her body stand on end. She suddenly began to regret agreeing to play.

Glimmer clapped her hands together to get everyone’s attention. “I’m so glad everyone could make it tonight! As I’m sure you all know, we’ll be playing a doubles tournament. I’ve randomly assigned everyone to teams, except for the boys that are here.” She gestured to the group of four boys in the crowd. “They’ll be playing with us tonight. Do you guys want to introduce yourselves?”

There was Bow, obviously. Mermistra brought her...friend, a guy named Seahawk with a shiny mustache and way-too-nice hair. Adora was pretty sure they were just friends, but she kept changing her mind between that and her boyfriend. Then there were the two guys that Lonnie hung out with, a huge dude named Rogelio and his polar opposite, the lanky blond one named Kyle. 

Glimmer continued her speech once they were done saying hi to everyone. “I’ve also randomized the bracket, and we’ll have one team with a bye-round since we have an odd number. They’ll skip the first round, playing against one of the other winners.” She turned around, sliding a rolling whiteboard into view and writing names on the tournament bracket as she spoke. “First up, we’ve got Rogelio and Kyle. playing against Lonnie and Entrapta.” Adora saw Lonnie try to knock elbows with Entrapta, but she just looked puzzled at the gesture.

“Our bye-round team is Bow and Seahawk, who’ll play the winner of that match.” The two boys high-fived each other, way too confident that they’d win against the women’s teams.

“In the next group, Spinerella and Perfuma will be playing against Catra and Adora.”

Hearing her pairing, Adora swung around to look at the girl on the other side of the gathering of players. It felt like someone dropped an ice cube down the back of her shirt. For a moment, Catra looked as surprised as she felt, which helped a bit, until a sly grin painted across her face. Something mischievous hid behind her eyes, and Adora missed the rest of the bracket being called out as she struggled to break away.

“Alright! Lonnie, Entrapta, Kyle, and Rogelio. Get ready because you’re up first! May the best squad win!”

Glimmer hopped off of the bench as Adora felt those familiar nerves overtake her again. She rushed over to her, panic on her tongue as she tried to keep her voice to a whisper. “Glimmer! I thought you said this was random! Why the hell did you partner me with Catra?”

“Psh, I didn’t do that!” Glimmer spoke with a smile peeking out from under her words. Adora should’ve known better. “Besides, this’ll be a good time for you two to reconnect! Y’know, get to know each other again.” She winked as she finished, and all Adora could do to keep from shouting was clenching her jaw in panicked frustration.

Catra appeared behind her, purring with pleasure. “What is it Adora? You don’t wanna play with me?”

No, that wasn’t it all. That wasn’t even close to being the problem. Adora would _kill_ to play with Catra under normal circumstances, but the rope called friendship that bound them together was so fragile that she was afraid to touch it, let alone tread on it.

“No! That’s not it, I was just…” Adora dug through her mind to find a reasonable lie. “I was just asking Glimmer about who would referee the matches! Haha.” She got a good look at Catra in front of her, who traded the dark leather from the night before for tight shorts and a t-shirt. She’d tied the extra fabric of her shirt into a knot on her stomach, pulling the cloth upwards the tiniest bit and revealing a line of brown skin that dimpled at her navel. 

Adora swallowed the knot in her throat.

“Riiiiight. Sure you were.” Catra’s face was thoughtful as she looked away from Adora and across the gym at their first opponents, Spinnerella and Perfuma. “You wanna come up with a game plan or do I have to do all the hard work?”

### Catra

The first set of the tournament ended with Lonnie and Entrapta beating Kyle and Rogelio easily. Rogelio had given Lonnie a hard time at first, his large body letting him cover huge swaths of the net with ease. But Entrapta adjusted, sending better and better sets as the game went on, and they ran away with it. Lonnie and Entrapta moved to the next round, where they’d play Bow and Seahawk.

Catra only agreed to come because Scorpia told her that the grand prize would be a free large frozen yogurt from one of the chains in town, and Catra had a soft spot for the treat. She was sure she could beat any one of her teammates, even Adora. All she had to do was keep the ball up and wear everyone else out. Easy-peasy.

It was an added bonus that she got paired with Adora though. Even if it pissed her off a little that Glitter was trying to play matchmaker.

Adora’s mind was elsewhere as they started their Pepper drill, her blue eyes glossy and reaction time slow. Catra set for her. Adora spiked it. Catra passed it back. Adora set for her. Catra spiked it. The ball bounced off Adora’s arms, shaking her from her trance as she lazily chased after it. Catra saw their opponents setting up, and Glimmer was tapping her foot as she waited for the other pair to take their position on the court.

_I’m not about to lose to Spinnerella and Flower Girl over there because Adora’s head is in the clouds._

When she came back, those pretty blue eyes were focused on the ball she cradled in her hands. “S-sorry. My bad.”

“Get your butt in gear, She-Ra.” Adora’s ears perked up. “This is the first time we’ve gotten to play on the same team in almost a decade, and if you fuck it up, I swear I’ll kill you.”

There’s that smile. 

Things had been tense all day. Scorpia grilled her for staying out late last night, saying something about how it’s bad for her or whatever. Against her will, Catra told her that she confronted Adora and things were...okay. For now. That was really the only way to put it.

She didn’t think Scorpia would ever let her sleep after that bombshell. So much for not staying up late. 

Going from dead-silence to being ‘friends’ wasn’t an easy road. Once you cut a tree down, there’s no getting that back. All you can do is plant another one and nurture it until it was as strong, or stronger, than the one that came before. So yeah, when Glimmer approached her this afternoon and asked her to be on Adora’s team, she said yes. If anything, she just wanted to take the painful imprint of their last game together and fill it with a new memory. A happier one. The birth of something new replacing the death of something old.

As they crossed the white line marking their side of the court, Adora’s shoulders seemed to relax a little. They were still tense though, with bundles of hard muscle outlining her back through the tank top she was wearing.

_Man, she could really use a massage._

“You remember the plan Princess? Flower Girl over there-”

“Perfuma.”

“Whatever. She’s all height, no power. Either get around the block or go straight through it.”

_Oh, this felt good._

Adora was in her element now. “I don’t think digging the ball up will be a problem, so let’s just focus on both receiving and not worry about blocking. That way, I can pass it to you so you can set it for me.”

Catra grinned at the woman staring back at her. “I like the way you think.”

Glimmer broke their huddle with a shout from the net. “You ready, Team Catradora?”

Both of them responded at the same time, bursting with energy, “Ready!”

Perfuma had the first serve. As she took her practice dribbles, Catra could already feel Adora’s presence to her left. She didn’t even need to look. She knew exactly where Adora was, what she was doing, even what she was thinking. And right now, Adora’s mind was perfectly silent.

Catra heard Scorpia’s voice from the stands, cheering for their opponents, “Woo! Get ‘em in one Perfuma!”

She shot a look at her roommate, only to get an sheepish shrug in response.

Perfuma tossed the ball up, lower than usual.

One step, two, three, jump, and swing.

Her serve was slow, much slower than Adora’s. When she saw what it was, Catra’s calves tensed in readiness.

This was a jump float, a harder serve to receive. One that had no spin on it, so that it almost shook as it sailed through the air, able to change direction at a moment’s notice.

Right before Catra was about to meet it, the ball dipped towards the floor. She dove forward and barely slipped her hands under it, passing it up into the air for Adora.

_Well, I wasn’t expecting her to be a server._

“Nice dig!”

Adora chased after the ball, stretching her arms out and underhand passing it to Catra as she stood back up, readying herself for an attack.

“Catra!”

Adora sent it to her. A sloppier set, but Catra couldn’t really blame her after that receive.

She ran towards the net, trying to dodge out of the way of Spinnerella’s stretching arms that met her when she arrived.

Catra dashed to one side at the last minute, but the spike brushed the fingertips of her blocker and sent it upwards, back onto their opponents court.

“Free ball!”

Catra jogged backwards, getting into position as she stood beside Adora. Several feet away, she could feel the intensity emanating from Adora as they waited.

Perfuma didn’t hesitate, immediately taking the chance to set for Spinnerella right against the net, giving her the best shot possible.

Strong arms sent the ball to the left of Adora, as far away from Catra as they could get it. Of course, they avoided hitting it towards the libero like the plague. But that was a double-edged sword.

Catra felt Adora lunge to the side, her forearms offering the perfect backboard to send the ball her way in a high arc, the best form to prepare for a set.

She moved into position as the ball started to come back down, laughing as she waited for it to fall. “Looks like someone’s had to learn how to receive since I was gone!”

Adora stood up, grinning as she took a few steps back to set up her running start. “You better watch out Catra, I might just take your spot!”

The tension between them had long faded, and they were harmonizing on a level more than physical now. Catra could feel her muscles slipping into old habits from shabbier gymnasiums and younger joints. It was euphoric, rediscovering all these motions without having to think about the pain. Maybe it’d come back later, but for now, she let herself bathe in the dopamine.

Catra’s fingers intercepted the ball, bouncing it across the court in that way Adora used to love. Catra hoped to God that she still did.

Adora’s legs carried her towards the net, her shoes squeaking on the hardwood as they lifted off.

_There it is._

She saw the strength behind the spike before she heard it. The muscles tensing in Adora’s arm, the flexing in her core as her body twisted _ever_ so slightly to put as much momentum as possibly into it.

**WHAM.**

* * *

Cool water rushed down Catra’s throat, flowing through her veins like ice and stifling the fire in her arms and legs. She watched Adora do the same through the corner of her eye, her head tilted back in desperate gulps as Catra traced the hard lines of her neck that sloped into broad shoulders.

She could feel Glimmer’s eyes watching her, but she tried not to let that phase her as she reveled in their victory. Their _first_ victory. And she was having fun too, more than she’d care to admit. Adora was goofy, even dumb a lot of times. But when her head was focused on the game, she almost turned into a different person, only interrupted by Catra’s teasing which was fucking _delicious_. The way her calculating eyes quickly turned into surprise and then shot another quip right back at Catra, no one else on the team did anything like it.

It was...nice.

“You ready to get crushed, Catra?”

While she was distracted, Glimmer had snuck up on her. Catra lazily looked away from the blonde in front of her, narrowing her eyes as she saw Glimmer’s arrogant grin.

_Oh, Sparkles has some bite._

Catra felt Adora watching their exchange, and turned it up a notch for the audience. “Psh. You really think you can win that easily, Glitter?”

The grin turned sour, Catra’s words easily finding their mark underneath her skin. “It’s _Glimmer_ , and just you wait. Me and Scorpia are going to absolutely school you and Adora.”

“ _School_ us? What are you, 12?” At that, Catra felt Adora approaching behind her, but Bow’s voice interrupted the three of them.

“C’mon Glimmer! You’re up!”

She broke her staring contest with Catra, whipping around to go meet Scorpia on the court, who good-naturedly waved at Catra once she looked over.

_Geez. Someone’s panties are in a twist._

A hand rested on the fabric of Catra’s shoulder, and she couldn’t help but dodge out from under it, spinning around to see Adora’s bewildered face looking at her with a hand still raised.

“Oh, uh, sorry. Reflex.”

Adora moved to rest her outstretched hand on her hip, light-hearted blue eyes catching Catra’s tense mood by surprise, but not fully erasing it.

“That was fun. The game, I mean. I had a good time.” Adora’s voice was uncharacteristically shy as she spoke, and Catra couldn’t help but try to pull a little more of _that_ side of Adora out too, not just the laser-focused ace she’d seen a few minutes ago.

“Of course it was fun, you were playing with me after all.” That smile came back as she talked, that dumb smile that made a golden light glow inside of Catra’s chest. She couldn’t get enough of it, even though she wasn’t quite sure what was causing it.

_That’s just what it feels like to have your best friend back, right?_

Adora laughed and started towards the benches around the court, sitting and looking back at Catra once she sat down. “Do you wanna watch Glimmer and Scorpia’s game with me?”

As sweet as that offer sounded, the thought of cheering for Adora’s roommate with the pink hair made her want to throw up. “What, you mean cheer for the girl who just said she would crush us? I think I’m good, thanks.”

Adora looked at her suspiciously before shooting back, “Oh give Glimmer a break. Besides, isn’t Scorpia your roommate?”

That part was a valid point. If Scorpia noticed that Catra didn’t even watch her game, she’d never hear the end of it.

“Fine.” Adora grinned and patted the open seat beside her in response. “But this is not because I like you.”

Adora rolled her pretty blue eyes at that while Catra plopped down beside her, being sure to leave at least a few feet of wood between them.

They were silent for a few minutes, listening to the callouts of the game and watching Glimmer set perfect spikes for Scorpia, only for many of them to be blocked by Mermista or dug up by Netossa. A lot of them were getting through though, and they had solid momentum. Catra noticed that Glimmer’s movements were often uncalculated, almost instinctual compared to Entrapta’s precision. Not to say that they were worse though. Where Entrapta paused to make sure that she had the best possible angle and arch, Glimmer rammed through without hesitation. Catra was admittedly getting into the game when Adora’s deafening silence hit her. One glance was all it took for Catra to know that something was taking over Adora’s mind. Sweat was beading on her brow and her fingers were white-knuckled around her thighs, making the hard muscle dip beneath her iron grip as Catra tried to gather herself.

She drove a finger into Adora’s bicep, savoring the feeling of solid tissue under her touch. “Hey. What’s up with you?”

Adora seemingly forgot Catra was there, wheeling around to look at her with flushed cheeks and wild eyes. “Huh?”

“Jesus. You look like you saw a ghost.”

She stumbled over her words as she pretended to focus on the game, but Catra saw her eyes flickering from the court to some of their teammates camped on the opposite end. “I’m just...nervous. I guess.”

Catra leaned back, suddenly extremely curious. “Right. And what’s making you so nervous that you’re even paler than usual?”

She saw Adora’s thin-lipped expression loosen a little at her ribbing, but she stayed on edge. “Well...I heard a rumor-”

“Uh huh.”

“-that Angella is still undecided on the starting lineup.”

Adora spoke with such finality, Catra felt like she was missing something. She waited for a minute, leaning forward with anticipation, but Adora didn’t say anything. 

“Okay? And?”

Adora gestured with her hands, trying to convey her meaning, but Catra still didn’t understand.

“You’re gonna have to be a little clearer than that, Princess.”

“Ugh! Don’t you understand, Catra? That means she hasn’t decided on _someone’s_ position.”

“Okay?”

“And who do you think that person is?”

That thought hadn’t really occurred to Catra. She was the only libero on the team, so she’d obviously be a starter, even if that meant getting subbed in and out regularly as the court rotated. She remembered Adora’s flitting eyes and nervousness earlier, looking again at the bench across the court where Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio were camped out. Lonnie met her eyes when she looked, sending a wave of pressure towards Catra that was strong enough to catch her off-guard. Then, something clicked in her head.

_Oh, Adora. You haven’t changed a bit._

Catra moved back to Adora, finding pleading eyes looking back at her. “Are you seriously worried about Lonnie taking your spot?”

“Yes!” Adora exclaimed a little too loudly, clamping one hand over her mouth before moving it away and whispering, “Yes! Remember what Angella said?”

And there went Catra’s good mood. Flashbacks of those first few days at the Training Center struck her, carrying memories of years ago with them. The pain hit her like a truck, digging its nails into freshly stitched-up feelings of betrayal.

_C’mon Catra. You knew this wouldn’t be easy. Are you really gonna give up that fast?_

That realization didn’t make it hurt any less though, it just made her grit her teeth as she tried to let it pass through her.

“Yeah. I remember.”

Adora must have picked up on her sudden shift in mood, because the worry that had sewn itself across her face suddenly shifted outwards. It was something that she used to do a lot when they were kids. Adora had this habit of putting herself and her feelings on the back burner, for the sake of everyone around her. Usually Catra. It really pissed her off. That’s how they ended up like this, after all. 

Adora must have developed some emotional intelligence in the years since they’d been apart, because she didn’t make Catra explain herself. Her voice was somber, but it helped still the waves raging inside of Catra. “It pisses me off too. But hey.” Adora nudged her with an elbow, breaking her resolve, “We’re better together. I just hope Angella realizes that sooner rather than later.”

Catra let herself chuckle as the game in front of them started to come to a close. “You’re really cheesy, you know that? Besides, I think you’re good enough on your own.” She definitely didn’t mean to make that sound as flirty as it did, but thankfully Adora didn’t seem to notice.

Maybe it was left over from their first game, but a hint of red colored Adora’s cheeks as she looked away towards Glimmer and Scorpia, who had won their game.

Scorpia rushed forwards, eager grin spread across her face, “Catra! Catra! Did you see that? We won!” She scooped Catra up and into her arms, almost breaking all of her ribs in the process.

Her breath was ragged as Catra struggled to get words out, but heard Adora’s sweet, bubbling laugh below her and out of sight. “Uh-yeah, Scorpia? I saw. Could you please put me down?”

“Oh, right! Personal space. Got it.” She lowered Catra to the ground, meeting Glimmer and Adora.

Glimmer looked like she didn’t even break a sweat. “You scared yet, Catra?”

Yeah, Catra was a little impressed by the woman’s style of setting. If anything, she liked it. It’s probably what she would do if she was a setter, but that didn’t mean she had to like the girl who did it.

“Hm? Oh, I was focused on Scorpia.”

She could practically see the steam come pouring out of Glimmer’s ears at that. “Ugh! Whatever, I’m going to go get some water. Adora, do you want to come with me?”

“Huh? No, I’m okay right here.”

“Adora! Don’t you _want_ to come with me?”

Adora looked confused for a second before getting the message, making an _I’m sorry_ face at Catra before getting up and following the setter.

_That was weird._

Catra was left with Scorpia as she took Adora’s seat on the bench and Lonnie and Entrapta were about to start their semifinals match with Arrowboy and Seahawk.

“Geez, I’m sorry we weren’t on the same team Catra! That would’ve been so fun.”

“Uh huh.” Catra’s mind was elsewhere, turning over in her head the anxiety that plagued Adora and weighing it. If anything, Adora had a bad habit of worrying about things that she didn’t need to worry about, and also not accepting that she’s earned all the good things that came her way. Catra could accept that Adora actually _was_ an exceptional player, but she’d never tell Adora that. It’d just go to her head, and it’d taken Catra long enough to accept it herself anyway.

After a few minutes, Adora came back to the bench in a huff, crossing her arms in front of her chest and looking like she’d gotten a whiff of something she wasn’t a fan of. She sat on the side of Scorpia opposite Catra, almost entirely out of view of her because of the gentle giant’s frame.

Luckily, Scorpia’s nosiness let Catra sit back as her curiosity was satisfied without any work on her part.

“What’s up Adora? Everything okay? I mean–you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to–that’s up to you! Y’know what? Sorry I even asked-“

Adora interrupted her, waving her off and letting her face relax. “It’s fine, I’m fine. Don’t worry about it. I just...Glimmer’s being Glimmer. That’s all.”

Catra made a face at the dodged question, thanking the stars that Scorpia’s body hid her expressions as she listened. What the hell does that even mean, anyway? Why was Adora all grumpy when she got back, and what did Glimmer want with her?

Scorpia nodded in recognition. “Oh yeah, I hear ya.” They both seemed to reach a mutual understanding, leaving the conversation at that and only succeeding at making Catra even more confused.

_How do I always get stuck with the dumb jocks?_

Eventually, Glimmer reappeared looking a little tense herself as Lonnie and Entrapta swept the floor with Bow and Seahawk. Catra wasn’t really sure what Seahawk’s normal position was, but it certainly wasn’t anything to do with offense. Or defense for that matter.

The last semifinal was ready to begin, and Glimmer avoided Adora’s eyes as she called out to her teammate, “Scorpia! You ready to kick some ass?” It was difficult for Catra to tell whether the taunting was friendly or not, which made her even _more_ excited for this game to start already.

“Oh yeah!” Scorpia rose from her seat before turning back to the bench with an innocent smile on her face, “Good luck out there!”

It was unfortunate that Scorpia would get caught in the crossfire, but the thought of shoving that pink-haired brat’s words back in her mouth was the sweetest thing Catra had tasted all day. She stood as she turned to look at Adora, expecting the outline of displeasure to still be wrinkling itself across her face. Instead, she found the first embers of a bonfire in her eyes.

Adora’s head was in the game now, and she looked like she wanted to _win_ by any means necessary. She started to rise from the bench, barely acknowledging Catra’s presence as she did a few practice hops. Catra waited until she stopped, watching Adora pop her neck before focused eyes met her.

Adora’s voice was as strong as steel when she spoke without a quiver of hesitation, sending shivers up Catra’s spine. 

“Catra. Don’t go easy on me, okay? Push my body as far as it’s willing to go.”

Normally, Catra would have shoved Adora’s words right back in her face and embarrassed her using every method imaginable. But _this_ Adora was the ace that Catra had heard legends about all through college. The one that irradiated so much unwavering certainty and conviction that she’d make you sorely regret ignoring her. She wasn’t exactly sure what had gotten into Adora, but she _loved_ it.

The feeling of being on the same side of the net with this version of Adora, with She-Ra, was miles and miles away from the vigor Catra felt as she tried to climb the ladder and play opposite her. This was intoxicating, and a surge of jealousy inflated Catra’s chest at the thought of Adora’s teammates in college, those with the privilege to play behind her back.

But now, Catra had that privilege. She wasn’t going to waste it.

Mixed eyes connected with icy ones, and Catra met Adora where she stood as she struggled to keep from winking. “Don’t worry. You won’t be able to walk when I’m done with you.”

Catra ran through possible strategies in her head as she followed Adora’s swinging ponytail to the court. Scorpia was wide and strong, giving her ample opportunities to block Adora’s spiking options. However, their weakness was definitely receiving. If Adora could get it through, they’d probably be in the clear, but that’s the problem. Setting wasn’t Catra’s specialty even if she could do it, so giving Adora a window wouldn’t be easy. As she weighed their options, Adora’s command came back to her. If all she could do was keep the rally going, Adora would keep jumping. And if Catra was sure of one thing, it’s that Adora had more stamina than anyone except her.

_That is, when she’s not overworking herself by playing for two different teams._

Muscles tensing at the recently resurfaced memory, Catra dug her nails into her palm to try and bring herself back to the court. Thankfully, Adora won the coin toss, so she was serving first. Catra watched as she strode to the center of the back line, palming the volleyball with one tense hand.

The atmosphere of the game started to hit Catra, and the uncanny connection she held with Adora snapped back into place. This was the first time Catra had played with ‘She-Ra,” and gone was the familiar, confident stature that Catra grew to know better than the back of her own hand. Replacing it was fire that burned white-hot with desire. Desire to win. Desire to force the ball into submission through sheer strength.

Suddenly, Catra was even more glad that she was on the same team as Adora.

Adora’s biceps flexed as she tossed the ball into the air in a high arc, following its path with her head. She swung her arms back, then forwards as she used the momentum to leap even higher before swinging her arm to impact the ball.

**WHAM**

It seemed to flatten against the force of the strike until the sheer power caught up with it, sending it rocketing towards the back corner of the opposing court with far more momentum than Catra remembered.

The missile grazed Glimmer’s arms before glancing off and flying towards the wall, out of bounds as it impacted the stone. The gymnasium was silent except for the sound of the ball bouncing along the floor as all eyes turned to the blonde-haired spartan at the edge of the court.

Bow marked a point on the whiteboard.

This was _not_ the same Adora that Catra had played with in high school. Catra’s hair stood on end as lightning seemed to arc off of Adora’s body in all directions, colliding with Catra and restarting her heart in the most delicious way possible. The absolute power that Adora radiated was, in a word... _hot_.

1-0

Glimmer bounced the ball under the net, sending a sour glance towards Catra before turning back. She instructed Scorpia to take a few steps back, widening their receiving area. Catra wasn’t sure what came over Adora to get this serious about a friendly 2v2 game, especially when it wasn’t even the finals of their tournament, but she was _loving_ it.

Adora bounced the ball, tossing it up again as she tried to mimic the results of the first serve. This one was stopped as Scorpia managed to get a hand on it, her large legs carrying her more quickly than most people expected.

“Sorry!” Scorpia shouted as the pass was imperfect, sailing towards the barriers and outside the bounds of the court as Glimmer chased after it.

Barely making it in time, she sent it back towards the net with more speed than Catra anticipated. Scorpia was there to meet her, soaring upwards and spiking it towards the back line of the court.

Adora rushed into her form, still recovering from her spike, but the ball ricocheted towards the sidelines and out of bounds.

1-1

As the game carried on, the blaze centered on Adora’s eyes burned brighter and brighter. Maybe Catra was imagining it, but she was jumping higher, spiking stronger, and moving faster. Every time Catra set for Adora, she would go higher and faster than the previous rally, and Adora managed to meet it every time. That wasn’t to say they had it easy though. While she may be gentle, Scorpia wasn’t a pushover at the net. Every time Adora went into the air, Scorpia faced her head on, narrowing her targets and allowing Glimmer to get a hand on more spikes than she would be able to normally. It was a stalemate, the perfect balance of offense and defense on both sides.

22-23

This was the longest game of the day by far. Everyone on the court was winded, running low on steam after playing several sets back to back until now. Catra watched Adora from behind, sweat finally starting to stain the shirt Adora was wearing and making it cling to her skin. The intensity Adora held at the beginning of the game held on with mind-blowing persistence, but Catra could see the toll it was taking on her body. She was quickly realizing that ‘She-Ra’ was a double-edged sword, sharp enough to cut through anything but not without hurting the knight that wielded it.

As Glimmer finished tying her shoe, Bow blew a whistle to signify the return to the normal pace of the game. It was Adora’s serve again, and the sweat slicking Adora’s skin glistened under the intense lights as she sent another missile towards the back line behind Scorpia.

What they lacked in energy, they were able to make up for by getting more and more in the rhythm of the game. Scorpia’s arms lagged, but she knew where Adora’s target was, moving with only the effort needed to send the ball up towards Glimmer again.

Adora rushed to Catra’s side in the center of the court, knees bent with ragged breathing escaping her lips.

Glimmer sent another set towards Scorpia, who hit it with all the strength she could muster it at this point.

The spike came towards Catra’s face, and a million calculations were made in her head as she processed the trajectory.

“Out!” Catra twisted to the side, the ball passing by her head within fractions of an inch, twisting hair behind it as it sailed out of bounds. “Watch it Scorpia!”

Scorpia apologized through the net for almost hitting Catra in the head _again_ , “Sorry!”

23-23

Adora’s eyes met her, a tiny smile breaking the coolheaded exterior. Breathy, she complimented Catra, “Nice call.”

Catra met her, taking the moment to catch her breath as she washed her eyes over Adora’s body. “Yeah well, if you’d actually hit some of those serves we’d be done already.”

Adora cracked back, raw confidence soaking through her words in a way that made Catra feel light-headed. “If you wanna stop playing with me that badly, I guess I’ll actually start trying.” Catra let herself indulge in Adora’s confidence, getting excited to see more serves that made Sparkles helpless.

Adora zoned in to the ball as she prepared to serve again, trying to reach a higher level of focus than before. Catra watched her, savoring the tightening of Adora’s shoulders as she warmed up her arms.

As she watched, Catra caught a glimpse of a tall, slender woman enter the gym out of the corner of her eye, hovering at the entrance of The Cave. Angella, the woman who held their fates in her hands, caught Catra’s eyes before she saw her shift to Adora, who was still laser focused on the ball contained in her palm.

Another toss up, this one arching even higher than the last and making Catra momentarily believe that Adora really did have stores of energy still untouched. 

**CRACK**

Her hand contacted the surface of the ball, sending it with just as much force as before but with much more spin. It passed over the net and immediately turned downward, falling at the front of the court and far from their opponents’ backpedalled position that they took to accommodate Adora’s typical serves.

24-23

How Angella found out this was happening, Catra didn’t know. She racked her brain for answers, being pulled away by more of Adora’s teasing.

“Was that better? Or do you need me to show you again?” Adora was smug, lifting up the front of her shirt to wipe the sweat from her forehead and exposing her solid abs to the stuffy gymnasium air. Catra had to hold her tongue, suddenly struggling to keep the barrage of comments and comebacks to herself when under the watchful gaze of Coach Angella.

_Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up._

Catra reluctantly pulled her eyes away from the defined muscle that lined Adora’s torso, trying to focus on the final point of the match.

But Adora’s gravitational pull was inescapable, dragging Catra closer and closer with every time she looked at her. Yet as much as Catra felt the reflex to escape, to kick up dust and soot as she sped away, she let herself be swept up into the orbit of the star that was Adora. The pull was too much, and she didn’t want to fight it anymore. She wanted to see what made her so bright.

“Show me one more time.”

At that, Adora smiled as she readied another serve, unaware of the importance of this short rally. She lined up her steps, tossing the ball for another curving serve. This one wasn’t as perfect, passing over the net and dipping downwards but still allowing Glimmer to receive it into the air.

Adora dashed to Catra’s side, muttering a frustrated curse under her breath that reminded Catra that Adora was still human.

Scorpia set across from her, short but quick as Glimmer reached up to redirect the ball.

Directed right in between the two receivers, Adora hesitated for a moment before Catra had to lunge to the side, barely sending the ball upwards. 

“Get it, dummy!”

Adora followed Catra’s command, racing after the ball before twisting her body around to send it back to Catra with an overhead set.

Jumping wasn’t her strong suit, but Catra met her target at full speed, using her dexterity to make up for what she lacked in strength.

Another spike came Scorpia’s way, followed by a textbook pass.

Glimmer sent it back to her.

Scorpia shot past Catra and towards the ace, but it wasn’t getting through.

Catra did the best set she could, but Adora’s attack was met with a solid wall of a body.

They tried again, and again, and again, but the ball wasn’t hitting the floor. Every hit was met with open arms, every set with an attack more powerful than the last. Catra started to heave, trying to pull in more and more oxygen as the rally _kept_ going.

Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth.

Another spike hit Adora’s block, bouncing off of her fingertips and flying backwards, past the bounds of the court.

“Catra!”

A guilty part of her wanted it to fall, to let this rally end, to let her have a break. But another part of her, the part that made her keep going through heartbreak, through betrayal, through defeat, told her to push herself further. No matter what happened, no matter how badly her legs felt like they’d split open, she’d keep running.

Her legs were on fire as she ran away from the net, eyes locked onto the spinning ball in the air. Past the back line, Catra leapt over the benches in one final stretch to get a hand under it.

An outstretched, locked wrist found leather as Catra followed through, whipping her arm backwards towards Adora.

Stumbling through the jump, Catra tried to catch her footing as she turned around to find her pass.

It was falling dangerously close to the line on the net, dividing the two halves of the court. Even if Catra had fresh legs, it would be difficult to get under it in time. This was up to Adora and Scorpia, the two tallest members of the team and the two women who pledged to guard the net while their teammates protected the court.

As the ball fell further, it became abundantly clear that it would straddle both sides of the net. To score, Adora would have to do one last mid-air battle against Catra’s roommate.

Using one last burst of energy, Adora leapt into the sky, using pure power to compensate for Scorpia’s height advantage.

Both blockers reached for the ball with tense fingers, focusing every bit of energy they had into their fingertips to try and break through the other’s block.

They hung there for what felt like an eternity, arms towering at a height Catra could only dream of.

Then, Scorpia’s fingers buckled.

Adora kept pushing, further and further, sending the ball past Scorpia’s head to fall behind her.

Glimmer tried to dive for it, trying to keep the game alive, but it was too late.

As leather hit wood, Adora landed on the floor, stumbling backwards onto her ass as she struggled to catch herself. 

Catra began to process just how much of a toll this supposedly friendly match took on Adora’s body as she looked up to find an empty corner where Angella once stood and endless questions hanging in the air as a long whistle rang in Catra’s ears.


End file.
